Minas Tirith

2010-05-27T16:06:28Z

80.30.104.115: /* Description */

{{disambig-more|Minas Tirith|[[Minas Tirith (disambiguation)]]}}
{{cleanup}}
{{location
| image=[[Image:Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg|300px]]
| name=Minas Tirith
| othernames=[[Minas Anor]]
| etymology=[[S.]] ''[[minas]]'' "tower" + ''[[tirith]]'' "guard"
| type=Tower/City
| location=East [[Gondor]]
| inhabitants=[[Gondorians]]
| realms=[[Gondor]]<br/>[[Reunited Kingdom]]
| description=White city of seven levels
| events=[[Battle of the Pelennor Fields|Siege of Minas Tirith]]
| references=
|}}
'''Minas Tirith''' ("Tower of the Guard") is the capital city of [[Gondor]].

==Description==
Minas Tirith was surrounded by the [[Rammas Echor]], a large ringwall encircling the [[Pelennor Fields]]. This wall was built by [[Ecthelion II]] but proved no match for the [[Orcs|Orc]] legions of [[Mordor]]. The city itself lies on a hill beneath Mount [[Mindolluin]]. The city is divided into seven one-hundred-foot high levels, each surrounded by white walls. The gates connecting the levels do not lay behind one another in a line, but face in different directions. A spur of rock, whose summit is level with the city's uppermost tier, juts out from the front of the city in an easterly direction, dividing all but the first level into two. Finally, within the seventh wall, is the Citadel with its White Tower, where the surviving Seeing Stones of Anor kept—three hundred feet high, so that its apex is one thousand feet above the plain gleaming when the light shone on it. Upon the saddle between the city and Mindolluin are the Houses of the Dead—tombs of the [[Kings of Gondor]] and their [[Stewards of Gondor|Stewards]]. The main walls of Minas Tirith, whose name was Othram (City Wall, Karen Wynn Fonstad's "The Atlas of Middle Earth, page 138) were of great height and marvellous thickness, made from a material alike to that of the tower of Orthanc: hard, dark, smooth, unbreakable and unconquerable by steel or fire.

==History==
Originally known as '''Minas Anor''' (the "Tower of the Sun"), it was in built in [[Second Age]] 3320 by [[Anárion]], brother of [[Isildur]] and second son of [[Elendil]], [[Kings of Arnor|High King]] of [[Arnor]]. It also known as the '''White City''' and '''[[City of the Kings]]'''. [[Ostoher]] rebuilt the city in [[Third Age]] 420, and it gradually became more important than [[Osgiliath]], the original capital. King [[Tarondor of Gondor|Tarondor]] finally moved the King's House from Osgiliath to the city in 1640. In the year 2002, [[Minas Ithil]] (the "Tower of the Moon") was captured by the [[Ringwraiths]] and renamed [[Minas Morgul]]. Minas Anor was renamed Minas Tirith, meaning "Tower of the Guard", to indicate that since the fall of Minas Ithil, Minas Tirith was to guard Gondor against evil from [[Mordor]]. The [[Rohirrim]] sometimes translate this into [[Rohirric|their own language]] as '''Mundburg'''.

During the [[War of the Ring]] ([[Third Age 3018]] – [[Third Age 3019|3019]]), Minas Tirith was said to "have less than half of the population which could have dwelt at ease" in it.

In ''[[The Return of the King]]'', Minas Tirith is besieged by troops of Mordor, the [[Easterlings]] and the [[Haradrim]], under the Great Darkness generated by Mordor. The [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]] takes place on March 15, 3019 in the fields surrounding the city. Despite heavy losses, the battle is finally won by Gondor.

On May 1, 3019, King [[Elessar]]'s coronation took place on the plain outside Minas Tirith, he then entered the city as King.

Minas Tirith is known to stand firm well into the [[Fourth Age]].

The eagle who brings the news of Sauron's defeat to Minas Tirith refers to the city as the Tower of Anor. Although this is nowhere described, it is possible that the city may have reverted to its original name once it no longer needed to guard against evil. An argument against this is that in the abandoned sequel ''[[The New Shadow]]'', which takes place during the time of Elessar's son [[Eldarion]], the city was clearly named Minas Tirith.

Map #40 in Barbara Strachey's ''[[Journeys of Frodo]]'' is a plan of Minas Tirith. Pages 138 & 139 in [[Karen Wynn Fonstad]]'s revised ''[[The Atlas of Middle-earth]]'' is another plan of Minas Tirith. They are at variance with each other, as the only authoritative maps by Tolkien are just sketches.

==Proportions==
The sharp ship-like bastion is mentioned to be 700 feet above the [[Great Gate of Minas Tirith]]. The breadth of the city would have average 3100 feet.<ref>[[The History of Middle-earth]], ''[[Sauron Defeated]]'', Illustration on p. 64</ref>

==In Adaptations==
In [[Peter Jackson]]'s ''[[Peter Jackson's The Return of the King|The Return of the King]],'' the walls of the city are defended by a battery of 100 trebuchets. These played a significant role in the siege in the movie, as they were responsible for destroying many orcs, siege towers and catapults. Sadly, a number of them were smashed to bits by fell beasts, but all were repaired in the end.

[[Image:Ryszard_Derdzinski_-_Minas_Tirith.jpg|left|thumb|250px|''Minas Tirith'' by [[Ryszard Derdzinski]]]]
Tolkien's description of the physical layout of Minas Tirith is followed scrupulously in [[Peter Jackson's The Return of the King]] film, although there is no reason to suppose that the top of the rock is flattened and paved, and in the book it is not the location for the coronation of [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] which occurs on the Pelennor Field outside Minas Tirith, he then enters the city as King. In the film version it is within clear sight of the mountains surrounding Mordor and the fires of [[Mount Doom]], so much that in at least one night scene the light of it shines on the faces of viewers from the city walls. However, in the books the mountains were far enough away that from the city they looked like a low dark shadow over the land far away. As well, in the book the populace was almost entirely evacuated before the battle. In the movie, the women and children remained, and many were slaughtered in the lower levels.

== See also ==
* [[:Category:Images of Minas Tirith|Images of Minas Tirith]]

[[Category:Cities]]
[[Category:Gondor]]
[[Category:Sieges]]

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Minas Tirith