Tirion

Tirion upon Túna was the city of the Noldor in Valinor. It was here that Finwë ruled from, and where his sons Fëanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin lived.

In the early versions of Tolkien's mythology (see: The History of Middle-earth), the city was called Kôr.

History:

The green hill of Túna was located in the steep-walled valley of Calacirya (translated from Quenya as "The Cleft of Light"), the only pass through the mountains of the Pelóri. Upon the crown of the hill the Elves raised their largest settlement west of the sea. The walls and terraces were white, and the sand in the streets was said to be of grains of diamond, and white crystal stairs climbed from the fertile land beneath to the great gates.

The center of the city was dominated by Ingwë's tower,"Mindon Eldaliéva", whose silver lantern shone far out to sea. Beneath the tower was the house of Finwë, first High King of the Noldor elves. Here also was the Great Square, where the white tree Galathilion flourished, and later the site of Fëanor's infamous oath.

After most of the Vanyar elves resettled in Valinor, the rule of Tirion was given to Finwë. Many years of bliss followed, until Tirion was shaken by the king's eldest son, Fëanor. After the murder of his father at the hands of the dark Lord Morgoth and the theft of his most precious gems, the Silmarils, Fëanor assembled the Noldor at the Great Square, where he urged the elves to leave with him back to Middle-Earth to avenge their king and reclaim the Silmarils, and to see that their lives in Tirion were simply a prison brought upon them by the Valar. In the end only a tenth of the population remained when Fëanor, his brothers and his and their children departed, though some followed their new king only reluctantly, and some would soon after follow Finarfin back to Tirion.

Nearly 600 years passed before Tirion once again appears in the mythology. When all the kingdoms of the elves in Middle-earth were in ruins, the half-elf Eärendil (father of the famous Elrond) sailed into the west in search of Valinor to ask for the assistance of the Valar in the war against Morgoth. Eärendil arrived in Tirion on a day of festival in Valinor when the city was all but empty, and only when he had turned his back on the city and began to return he was approached by a herald of the Valar.

More than 3,000 years followed before Tirion was for the first time seen by mortal eyes- soldiers of the king of Númenor, deceived by Sauron, landed in on the shores of Eldamar and camped around Túna, which the fleeing elves emptied. When the men of Númenor were buried under falling hills, Tirion, along with all the Undying Lands, was taken out of mortal reach forever.