Description
The name Minas Tirith means "The Tower of Guard" or "The Tower of Watch" in the Elvish language Sindarin. It was originally named Minas Anor, "The Tower of the Setting Sun", in connection with Minas Ithil, "The Tower of the Rising Moon". Minas Ithil was later conquered by orcs from Mordor and was renamed Minas Morgul, "The Tower of Black Sorcery".
Minas Tirith was built culminating in the Citadel at the summit. Each of the seven levels stood 100 ft (30 m) higher than the one below it, each surrounded by a white wall, with the exception of the wall of the First Circle, which was black. The outer face of this outer wall, the lowest, was made of black stone, the same material used in Orthanc; it was vulnerable only to earthquakes capable of rending the ground where it stood.
Each wall held a gate, and each gate faced a different direction.
Read more about this topic: Minas Tirith
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any other place.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)