Tower of Cirith Ungol.

The Tower of Cirith Ungol in Ephel Dúath was lying at the eastside of the mountains above and north of the Morgul Road in the Vale of Cirith Ungol looking out upon the Plateau of Gorgoroth at the other side of Morgai in Mordor. The tower were begun build by Gondor at the same time as Durthang and Nelig Myrn after the War of the Last Alliance in the end of the Second age to protect and watch over Mordor. But the strength and power of Gondor failed during the Third age after the Great Plague ( 1636 - 1640 ) and the tower fell into decay and stood empty until Saurons servants the Ringwraiths returned in 1980. When Sauron returned to Mordor the towers were repaired and filled with servants of Sauron.

There were two ways to the tower, but both from the Vale of Cirith Ungol, one path went up by stairs into the north lying Ephel Dúath and through Torech Ungol and came out by the side through a brazen door of the outer wall of the tower and met the main road to the gate. The other way was by the Morgul Road through the valley of Cirith Ungol straight to the eastside of Ephel Dúath and up by a sideroad to the gate.

The tower leaned its western side against the steep mountainside and it were built upon a small shelf near the top of the mountains north of the cleft of Cirith Ungol. No approach save from the main road and through the gate in the outer wall was possible.

The gate at the south-east side in the outer wall was guarded by Two Watchers but inside the gate was the outer courtyard 50 feet across with flights running up to the 30 feet high wall and battlement with its parapet leaning out like inverted steps shaped like a fence of spearheads. The bastions of the wall was facing north-east and south-east.

The tower itself were in three great tiers, each one smaller and further back than the one below. At the top 200 feet above the courtyard stood a single round turret which could be seen even from the west at the other side of Ephel Dúath. The turret had a pinnacle so high and sharp that it from afar appeared as was it a horn of the mountain. Inside the tower a stair on the right winds up with doors leading into halls, it seems like the stairs went up clockwise and it ended at the roof of the top tier in a small chamber with two doors. Inside the turret a stair went up counterclockwise through one full circle, halfway up was a closed door into the first floor, and at the end of the stair the second floor and above that was the top-chamber.