City Gate

The wide gate in the eastern wall of Minas Tirith that formed the Great Gate of the City. Dating back to the City's earliest years, when it had still been known as Minas Anor, the gate consisted of a pair of iron doors mounted on steel posts. Roads from north, east and south came together in the field outside the City Gate, and the joint roadway led in through its iron doors. Behind the gate was a wide and open square, beyond which the rocky 'keel' that ran up through the City emerged from the ground.

At the end of the Third Age, the iron gate, raised by the great early Men of Gondor, had survived for thousands of years. In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the invading forces of Sauron brought an immense battering-ram against the City Gate. So, after guarding Minas Tirith for millennia, the City Gate finally failed, shattered into pieces by the fearsome ram named Grond.

Though they had breached the gate, the invaders were eventually defeated and Minas Tirith survived their assault. After the War of the Ring, some of the Dwarves of Erebor were led southward by Gimli to settle at Aglarond, and they lent their aid to Minas Tirith. A new City Gate was made at that time, forged from mithril and steel, to replace the old iron gate that had been destroyed in the War.