Harad Road

We have very few references to the Harad Road of any kind, and none to provide definite dates. Indeed, the road may have existed in some form, perhaps as a trading route, before the foundation of Gondor. Its most likely date of construction, however, would probably be about the year III 1050, when Ciryaher (later Hyarmendacil I) of Gondor marched a great army southward to the relief of Umbar. He is noted as taking several decades to prepare for this action, and the need to build a road for his troops through Harondor (South Gondor) would help to explain this delay. Whenever the road was made, it was probably in existence by III 1448, because Harondor was lost to Gondor in that year. Our first reference to the road comes long after all of these dates, during the battles of III 1944, though even here the records merely imply its existence (speaking of a road across the Fords of Poros) rather than naming it outright.

The route of the road southward from the Crossings of Poros is well established, at least until it passed beyond Harnen into the Harad itself. The status of its northern section (through South Ithilien, between Pelargir and the Crossings of Poros) is less clear. It was evidently a continuation of the same road, but this northern section is not definitively identified as part of the main Harad Road.