   minas tirith (; sindarin: ), originally named minas anor, is a fictional city and castle in j. r. r. tolkien's middle-earth writings. it became the heavily fortified capital of gondor in the second half of the third age. it was originally built to guard the former capital, osgiliath, from attack from the west, but became the capital when osgiliath fell into ruin following the kin-strife and the great plague. it is often referred to as the white city (though that name is not in the book) and the city of the kings. the rohirrim sometimes translated this into their own language as "the mundburg". in the climax of the lord of the rings the city comes under a very large and determined attack by the allied forces of mordor. ==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  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. ===great gate=== the great gate was the main gate on the first level of the c
Middle-earth_castles_and_fortresses Middle-earth_cities_and_towns