Tower of Cirith Ungol

tower
dark medieval

Tall slender black stone tower on mountain horn above pass with burning red light. Orc-held watch-tower overlooking the pass.

Type: tower
Style: dark medieval
First appears: Book 2 · Ch. 19
Books: 2

The Tower of Cirith Ungol first appears in The Two Towers as a slender, ominous black stone watch-tower perched on a mountain horn, its burning red light serving as a sentinel over the pass into Mordor. By The Return of the King, the structure is revealed to be a far more formidable three-tiered fortress carved into the mountainside, its eastern face bristling with cunning masonry bastions that guard the cleft above Mordor’s inner fences. Across the books, the tower evolves from a distant, ominous beacon into a critical strategic stronghold whose capture becomes pivotal to the success of the quest.

History

BOOK 2The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of the Lord of the Rings
Tall slender black stone tower on mountain horn above pass with burning red light. Orc-held watch-tower overlooking the pass.
BOOK 3The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings
A three-tiered orc-hold built into the mountainside, its eastern face rising in diminishing pointed bastions of cunning masonry. It guards the cleft of Cirith Ungol above the inner fences of Mordor.