Great question. Let's talk about

Great question. Let's talk about the location of Minas Morgul. On this map, Minas Morgul is in line of sight with Minas Tirith, but you'll remember from the films, it's actually tucked back behind the mountains when it's in front of it. So why did I make the change? It's not shown on my map, but there is a road that leads from Minas Tirith through Osgiliath and to Minas Morgul. But this was once called Minas Ithil. It belonged to Gondor and its sister city's to Minas Tirith. And it was the last line of defense from Mordor. And in the films, this is actually tucked back into the Morgul Vale. And we can see that when in film number three, Gandalf and Pippin are trying to make their way past Minas Morgul, into the Morgul Vale, and they see this big beam of light shoot up from this spire. So why did I make the change? My Minas Morgul is on the western side of the Black Mountains for a couple of reasons. A little bit of background information. In Sauron, the Black Mountains are called the Ered Lithui, which means the fence around the shadow. And from a defensive standpoint, it would make sense that Minas Tirith should be able to see Minas Ithil in case it comes down under attack or siege, which is much harder if it's tucked back into the valley and isn't visible. It's also located right here on most of Tolkien's old maps and the maps that came before the films. But when it comes to the movies, when Sam, Frodo and Gollum are trying to make their way past Minas Morgul, they make them seem so much further away from everyone to place Minas Morgul into the Morgul Vale, and it's the right choice from a storytelling perspective when adapting the story to film. At least I think so. So right now, I'm actually working on a mini-series that follows the path of all the fellowship characters that I'm going to be posting here in a little bit. But just a bonus since we're talking about Minas Morgul and Gondor. This is the statue of the king whose head is replaced by the eye of Sauron that's seen at the crossroads of Ithilien at the end of movie two. Frodo and Sam walk past it very briefly. Some of these are like, hard to see on camera, but I thought I would share.