High Court

The highest of the seven levels of Minas Tirith was strongly fortified, and could be reached only by the long ramp that ran up to the Seventh Gate. Beyond that gate, the High Court was paved in white stone, with a green lawn and a fountain playing from a pool in its centre. Within that lawn the White Trees of Minas Tirith had once grown, but by the end of the Third Age only the withered Dead Tree remained. The High Court and its Citadel were watched over by the black-clad companies of the Guards of the Citadel.

Above even the High Court stood the White Tower, holding the thrones of Gondor's Kings and Stewards, and rising some three hundred feet (or about ninety metres) above the courtyard below. This White Tower was added to the Citadel in III 1900, when the Kings still ruled in Gondor, and rebuilt in III 2698 by Steward Ecthelion I. It was within this shining Tower of Ecthelion above the High Court that Gandalf and Pippin met with Steward Denethor after their arrival in Minas Tirith.