![]() ![]() Núrn, the southern part of Mordor, was less arid and more fertile Sauron's slaves farmed this region to support his armies, and streams fed the salt Sea of Núrnen. Gorgoroth was volcanic and inhospitable to life, but home to Mordor's mines, forges, and garrisons. Sauron's main fortress Barad-dûr was on the north side of Gorgoroth, at the end of a spur of the Ash Mountains. The core of Sauron's realm was in the northwest: the arid plateau of Gorgoroth, with the active volcano Mount Doom located in the middle. The interior of Mordor was composed of three large regions. Inside the Ephel Dúath ran a lower parallel ridge, the Morgai, separated by a narrow valley, a "dying land not yet dead" with "low scrubby trees", "coarse grey grass-tussocks", "withered mosses", "great writhing, tangled brambles", and thickets of briars with long, stabbing thorns. The route traversed Torech Ungol, the lair of the giant spider Shelob. Its top was guarded by a tower, built by Gondor. A higher, more difficult pass, Cirith Ungol, lay just to the north of the Morgul pass. The fortress Durthang lay in the northern Ephel Dúath above Udûn. The main pass was guarded by Minas Morgul, a city built by Gondor as Minas Ithil. The Ephel Dúath ("Fence of Shadow") defended Mordor on the west and south. For the American heavy metal band, see Cirith Ungol (band). Not far from the Dead Marshes is another dismal swamp, the Nindalf or Wetwang, beside the Emyn Muil hills. To the west lay the narrow land of Ithilien, a province of Gondor to the northwest, the Dead Marshes and Dagorlad, the Battle Plain to the north, Wilderland to the northeast and east, Rhûn to the southeast, Khand and to the south, Harad. The lengths of these ranges are estimated to be 498, 283 and 501 miles (801, 455 and 806 kilometres) respectively, which gives Mordor an area of roughly 140,000 square miles (360,000 square kilometres). ![]() Three sides were defended by mountain ranges: the Ered Lithui ("Ash Mountains") on the north, and the Ephel Dúath on the west and south. Mordor was roughly rectangular in shape, with the longer sides on the north and south. Geography Overview Sketch map of part of Middle-earth in the Third Age, with Mordor on the right, bordered by Rohan and Gondor Others have observed that Tolkien depicts Mordor as specifically evil, and as a vision of industrial environmental degradation, contrasted with either the homey Shire or the beautiful elvish forest of Lothlórien. Another forerunner that Tolkien was very familiar with is the account of the monster Grendel's unearthly landscapes in the Old English poem Beowulf. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.Ĭommentators have noted that Mordor was influenced by Tolkien's own experiences in the industrial Black Country of the English Midlands, and by his time fighting in the trenches of the Western Front in the First World War. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced from Sindarin Black Land and Quenya Land of Shadow) is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. The Land of Shadow, the Black Land, the Nameless Landīarad-dûr (the Dark Tower), Mount Doom, the Morannon (Black Gate), Cirith Ungol, Gorgoroth, Udûn
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