Tower of Cirith Ungol

The Tower of Cirith Ungol stands as one of the most forbidding structures in all of Mordor, a monument to both the ancient power of Gondor and its long, tragic decline. It is here that Samwise Gamgee, having crossed the high ridge of the Ephel Dúath, first gazes upon the full, dreadful extent of the dark land and the fortress that guards its western approach. The tower is not merely a military outpost; it is a symbol of vigilance turned to treachery, a stronghold whose very design betrays the dark purpose it now serves. Its revelation to Sam marks a crucial moment in his journey, forcing him to confront the overwhelming might of the enemy he and Frodo Baggins have come to challenge.

Identity and Setting

The Tower of Cirith Ungol is a massive fortress carved into the mountain-wall of the Ephel Dúath, the western mountain range that fences in the land of Mordor. From the vantage point where Sam stands, the tower presents an awe-inspiring and terrifying sight. The horn that he had glimpsed from the other side of the mountains proves to be only the topmost turret of a much larger structure. Its eastern face rises in three great tiers from a shelf in the mountain-wall far below, its back set against a great cliff from which it juts out in pointed bastions, one above the other, diminishing as they rise. The sheer sides of its cunning masonry look north-east and south-east, and about the lowest tier, two hundred feet below where Sam stands, there is a battlemented wall enclosing a narrow court. The tower's gate, on its near south-eastern side, opens onto a broad road whose outer parapet runs upon the brink of a precipice, before turning southward and winding down into the darkness to join the road that comes over the Morgul Pass. From there, the road continues through a jagged rift in the Morgai, the inner ring of the land's fences, out into the valley of Gorgoroth and away to Barad-dûr, the fortress of Sauron himself. The narrow upper way on which Sam stands leaps swiftly down by stair and steep path to meet the main road under the frowning walls, close to the Tower-gate.

The View from the Ridge

Sam's first full sight of the Tower of Cirith Ungol comes as he stands on the highest ridge of the Ephel Dúath, having just crossed into Mordor. The land that meets his gaze is hard, cruel, and bitter. Before his feet, the ridge falls steeply in great cliffs down into a dark trough, on the further side of which rises another ridge, much lower, its edge notched and jagged with crags like fangs that stand out black against the red light behind them. This is the grim Morgai, the inner ring of the fences of the land. Far beyond it, almost straight ahead, across a wide lake of darkness dotted with tiny fires, there is a great burning glow, and from it rise huge columns of swirling smoke, dusty red at the roots, black above where it merges into the billowing canopy that roofs in all the accursed land. Sam is looking at Orodruin, the Mountain of Fire, also known as Mount Doom. Ever and anon the furnaces far below its ashen cone grow hot and, with a great surging and throbbing, pour forth rivers of molten rock from chasms in its sides. Some of these rivers flow blazing towards Barad-dûr down great channels; some wind their way into the stony plain, until they cool and lie like twisted dragon-shapes vomited from the tormented earth. In such an hour of labour Sam beholds Mount Doom, and the light of it, cut off by the high screen of the Ephel Dúath from those who climb up the path from the West, now glares against the stark rock faces, so that they seem to be drenched with blood.

A History of Treachery

As Sam gazes at the Tower of Cirith Ungol, he suddenly understands, almost with a shock, that this stronghold was built not to keep enemies out of Mordor, but to keep them in. It is indeed one of the works of Gondor long ago, an eastern outpost of the defences of Ithilien, made when, after the Last Alliance, Men of Westernesse kept watch on the evil land of Sauron where his creatures still lurked. But as with Narchost and Carchost, the Towers of the Teeth, so here too the vigilance had failed, and treachery had yielded up the Tower to the Lord of the Ringwraiths, and now for long years it had been held by evil things. Since his return to Mordor, Sauron has found it useful; for he has few servants but many slaves of fear, and still its chief purpose as of old is to prevent escape from Mordor. Though if an enemy were so rash as to try to enter that land secretly, then it is also a last unsleeping guard.