Editing Minas Tirith (section)

== Description ==

{{Quote box
 | quote  =  For partly in the primeval shaping of the hill, partly by the mighty craft and labour of old, there stood up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east. Up it rose, even to the level of the topmost circle, and there was crowned by a battlement; so that those in the Citadel might look from its peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below. The entrance to the Citadel also looked eastward, but was delved in the heart of the rock; thence a long lamp-lit slope ran up to the seventh gate. Thus men reached at last the High Court, and the Place of the Fountain before the feet of the White Tower: tall and shapely, fifty fathoms from its base to the pinnacle, where the banner of the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the plain.
 | source = ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', book 5, ch. 1 "Minas Tirith"
 | width  = 50%
 | align  = right
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{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Timeline<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=Appendix B "The Second Age" and "The Third Age"}}</ref>
|-
! Date !! Event
|-
| c. [[Second Age|S.A.]] 3400 || Minas Tirith founded
|-
| [[Third Age|T.A.]] 2050 || Eärnur, last King of Gondor, dies;<br/>Stewards rule in his stead
|-
| 2685–2698 || Ecthelion rebuilds the White Tower
|-
| 3018–19 || [[War of the Ring]]
|-
| 3019, 10 March || [[Mordor]] attacks Gondor
|- 
| 3019, 15 March || [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]]
|-
| 3019, 1 May || [[Aragorn]] crowned King of Arnor and Gondor
|}

Minas Tirith ([[Sindarin]]: "Tower of Guard"<ref>{{cite book |last=Noel |first=Ruth S. |title=The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth |year=1974 |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin]] |isbn=0-395-29129-1 |page=170}}</ref>) was the capital of [[Gondor]] at the end of the [[Third Age]] of [[Middle-earth]]. It lay at the eastern end of the White Mountains, built around a shoulder of Mount Mindolluin. The city is sometimes called "the White Tower", a [[synecdoche]] for the city's most prominent building in its Citadel, the seat of the city's administration. The head of government is the Lord of the City, a role fulfilled by the Stewards of Gondor. Other officials included the Warden of the Houses of Healing and the Warden of the Keys. The Warden of the Keys was in charge of the city's security, especially its gates, and the safe-keeping of its treasury, notably the Crown of Gondor; he had command of the city when it was besieged by the forces of [[Mordor]].<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5 ch. 8 "The Houses of Healing"</ref>

Minas Tirith had seven walls: each wall held a gate, and for strength of defence each gate faced a different direction from the next, facing alternately somewhat north or south. Each level was about {{Convert|100|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} higher than the one below it, and each surrounded by a high stone wall coloured in white, with the exception of the wall of the First Circle (the lowest level), which was black, built of the same material used for [[Orthanc]]. This outer wall was also the tallest, longest and strongest of the city's seven walls; it was vulnerable only to earthquakes capable of rending the ground where it stood.<ref name="Siege of Gondor" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}}, book 5, ch. 4 "The Siege of Gondor"</ref> The Great Gate of Minas Tirith, constructed of iron and steel and guarded by stone towers and bastions, was the main gate in the first or outer wall of the city. In front of the Great Gate was a large paved area called the Gateway. The main roads to Minas Tirith met here: the North-way that became the Great West Road to [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]]; the South Road to the southern provinces of Gondor; and the road to Osgiliath, which lay to the north-east of Minas Tirith. Except for the high [[Saddle (landform)|saddle]] of rock which joined the west of the hill to Mindolluin, the city was surrounded by the [[#Pelennor Fields|Pelennor]], an area of farmlands.<ref name="Minas Tirith" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} book 5 ch. 1 "Minas Tirith"</ref>

The city's main street zigzagged up the eastern hill-face and through each of the gates and the central spur of rock. It led to the Citadel through the Seventh Gate on its eastern part. The White Tower, at the city's highest level with a commanding view of the lower vales of [[Anduin]], stood in the Citadel, 700 feet higher than the surrounding plains, protected by the seventh and innermost wall atop the spur. Originally constructed by a king of yore, it is also known as the Tower of Ecthelion, the Steward of Gondor who had it re-built. The seat of the rulers of Gondor, the Kings and the Stewards, the tower stood {{Convert|300|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} tall, so that its pinnacle was some {{Convert|1000|ft|m|spell=in}} above the plain. The main doors of the tower faced east, onto the Court of the Fountain. Inside was the Tower Hall, the great [[throne room]] where the Kings (or Stewards) held court. The [[Palantír|Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith]], used by Denethor in ''[[The Return of the King]]'', rested in a secret chamber at the top of the Tower. There was a [[Buttery (room)|buttery]] of the Guards of the Citadel in the basement of the tower. Behind the tower, reached from the sixth level, was a [[Mountain pass|saddle]] leading to the Hallows or necropolis of the Kings and Stewards, with its street of tombs, Rath Dínen.<ref name="Minas Tirith" group=T/>{{sfn|Fonstad|1991|pp=138–139}}<!--cf Map #40 in Barbara Strachey's ''[[Journeys of Frodo]]''-->