Minas Morgul

Minas Ithil

The city was built by Isildur at the founding of Gondor in a high valley opening westward out of the Ephel Dúath, and named the Tower of the Rising Moon as the counterpart of his brother's Tower of the Setting Sun. It held the first White Tree of Gondor and one of the palantíri, and it was the chief fortress of Ithilien and the eastern watch on Mordor. Its walls were of white stone, and the moon shining on them gave the valley its beauty.

The Tower of Sorcery

After the Nazgûl took it the city was changed. Its walls and tower still shone, but with a sick pale light, like the glow of decay, that illuminated nothing. The topmost storey of the tower revolved slowly, like a head looking about. The bridge over the stream was lined with figures of men and beasts carved in the likeness of things corrupted, and the meadows on either side were thick with pale flowers that gave off a smell of rot. The stream itself, the Morgulduin, ran cold and poisonous down the valley to join the Anduin, and no one drank from it. The road from the city ran west to the Crossroads and, behind the city, a stair climbed up into the mountains to the pass of Cirith Ungol. The Morgul Vale was so full of dread that the Men of Gondor would not enter it, and the Rangers went no nearer than the Crossroads.

Isildur's city

Isildur dwelt in Minas Ithil from S.A. 3320 until 3429, when Sauron, returned in secret to Mordor, attacked without warning, took the city and burned the White Tree. Isildur escaped with a seedling and his family, and after the Last Alliance the city was restored and held by Gondor for two thousand years as its eastern bastion.

The fall

The Witch-king, after the destruction of Angmar, came to Mordor in T.A. 1980 and gathered the other Ringwraiths. In 2000 they besieged Minas Ithil, and in 2002 it fell; its palantír was taken to Barad-dûr, where Sauron used it to trap Saruman and torment Denethor. The city became Minas Morgul, the Tower of Sorcery, and Minas Anor across the river was renamed Minas Tirith. In 2050 King Eärnur, taunted by the Witch-king, rode to its gate to answer his challenge and was never seen again; the line of kings ended there. In 2475 the Uruks of Morgul ruined Osgiliath, and through the following centuries the valley's shadow spread until Ithilien was empty.

The War of the Ring

The Nazgûl rode out from Minas Morgul in the summer of 3018 to hunt the Ring, and its Orcs led the assault on Osgiliath in June. On the night of March 10, 3019 Frodo, Sam and Gollum, climbing the stair above the city, watched the gate open and the whole army of Morgul march out with the Witch-king at its head on his black horse, bound for the crossing of Anduin and the siege of Minas Tirith. It was the greatest army of the war, and it did not return: it was destroyed on the Pelennor Fields, and the Witch-king with it.

The end

After the fall of Sauron the city stood empty. King Elessar ordered it to be pulled down entirely and forbade anyone to dwell in the valley for many years, until its evil had been cleansed. Faramir, Prince of Ithilien, dwelt on the far side of the province in Emyn Arnen.

Minas Morgul stood in the Morgul Vale, a valley of the western Ephel Dúath some fifteen miles east of the Crossroads of Ithilien and roughly opposite Osgiliath and Minas Tirith across the Anduin. The Morgulduin flowed down the valley to the river; the Morgul Pass led east over the mountains into Mordor, and the Straight Stair and Winding Stair climbed from the vale to Cirith Ungol.