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the tower of cirith ungol 1177
to his left, he could see the Tower of Cirith Ungol in all its
strength. The horn that he had seen from the other side was
only its topmost turret. Its eastern face stood up in three great
tiers from a shelf in the mountain-wall far below; its back was
to a great cliff behind, from which it jutted out in pointed
bastions, one above the other, diminishing as they rose, with
sheer sides of cunning masonry that looked north-east and
south-east. About the lowest tier, two hundred feet below
where Sam now stood, there was a battlemented wall enclosing
a narrow court. Its gate, upon the near south-eastern side,
opened on a broad road, the outer parapet of which ran upon
the brink of a precipice, until it turned southward and went
winding down into the darkness to join the road that came
over the Morgul Pass. Then on it went through a jagged rift
in the Morgai out into the valley of Gorgoroth and away to
Barad-dûr. The narrow upper way on which Sam stood leapt
swiftly down by stair and steep path to meet the main road
under the frowning walls close to the Tower-gate.
As he gazed at it suddenly Sam understood, almost with a
shock, that this stronghold had been built not to keep enemies
out of Mordor, but to keep them in. It was 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 had found it useful;
for he had few servants but many slaves of fear, and still its
chief purpose as of old was to prevent escape from Mordor.
Though if an enemy were so rash as to try to enter that land
secretly, then it was also a last unsleeping guard against any
that might pass the vigilance of Morgul and of Shelob.
Only too clearly Sam saw how hopeless it would be for
him to creep down under those many-eyed walls and pass
the watchful gate. And even if he did so, he could not go far