Minas Tirith

(All underlined is important names, people, dates etc)

Originally known as Minas Anor, the "Tower of the Setting Sun", Minas Tirith was built in S.A. 3320 by Anárion, younger brother of Isildur and second son of Elendil, High King of Arnor.

Ostoher rebuilt the city in T.A. 420 as a summer residence, and it became the capital of Gondor in T.A. 1640, when KIn 2002, the White City's companion city, Minas Ithil, Tower of the Rising Moon, on the borders of Mordor, was captured by the Nazgûl and renamed Minas Morgul, Tower of Sorcery (Dead City).

Minas Anor was renamed Minas Tirith, meaning "Tower of Guard", to indicate that since the fall of Minas Ithil, Minas Tirith assumed the role of guarding Gondor against Mordor's forces.

For the next thousand years, the two cities were in a stalemate, with neither able to topple the other.

With the rebuilding of the Dark Tower and the open return of Sauron, the forces of Mordor gathered their strength to topple Minas Tirith in the upcoming War of the Ring.

In the later part of the Third Age, Minas Tirith and its lands were surrounded by the Rammas Echor, a fortified wall encircling the Pelennor Fields and meeting up with Osgiliath, where the Causeway Forts were built on the west bank of the Anduin and garrisoned, though Osgiliath itself remained in ruins.

This outwall was built by Ecthelion II but fell into disrepair after his death, only to be repaired in the year leading up to the War.

According to the non-canon New Line book The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare the height of Minas Tirith in the films from the foot of the gates to the top of the Tower of Ecthelion (which individually is said to be 300 feet tall) could be estimated to be around 1,000 feet (304.8 m), and the diameter of the city almost three-quarters of a mile (3,960 feet). The book also suggests that the towering bastion of stone, shaped like the keel of a ship, which rose from behind the Great Gates on the first level to the citadel on the seventh, was a quarter of a mile tall (1 320 feet). However this height does not take into account the Tower of Ecthelion, which was situated on the seventh level, meaning that in total the city is some 1,620 feet tall (493.7 m). This means that the city's total height is somewhere between 1,000 feet (304.8 m) and 1,620 feet (493.7 m).

Description:

Name
Minas Tirith (Tower of Guard)

Other names
Minas Anor (Tower of the Setting Sun)White City, City of Kings

Constructed by
Anárion

Realm

Gondor Anórien

Lord(s)
Kings and Stewards of Gondor

Type
Fortified City

Lifespan
Built S.A. 3320