Minas Morgul

Towering fortified city on a rocky seat amid black mountains, pale corpse-light emanating from marble-like walls and revolving tower top like a leering face. Once Minas Ithil, now home of the Ringwraiths.

Once the fair Minas Ithil, Tower of the Moon, Minas Morgul emerges in The Two Towers as a corrupted bastion of evil, its marble walls glowing with a corpse-like pallor and its revolving pinnacle leering like a deathly skull, serving as the dread stronghold of the Nazgûl. In The Return of the King, it stands as an even more lifeless citadel of horror in its accursed vale, its atmosphere inducing madness in the living, poised as the launch point for the Witch-king's army against Gondor. Though not destroyed, Minas Morgul's ominous presence culminates in the great battle's prelude, symbolizing Sauron's creeping dominion until the Ring's destruction shifts the tide.