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LotR Minas Morgul

"A long-tilted valley, a deep gulf of shadow, ran back far into the mountains. Upon the further side, some way within the valley's arms, high on a rocky seat upon Ephel Dúath, stood the walls and towers of Minas Morgul. All was dark about it, earth and sky, but it was lit with light. Not the light welling through the marble walls of Minas Ithil long ago, fair and radiant in the hollow of the hills. Paler indeed than the moon ailing in some slow eclipse was the light of it now, wavering and blowing like a noisome exhalation of decay, a corpse-light, a light that illuminated nothing."
—The Two Towers, "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol"

Minas Morgul was once a fortress of Gondor, initially called Minas Ithil or Tower of the Moon. As the easternmost fortification in the Kingdom of Gondor, Minas Ithil safeguarded the eastern borders of the realm and protected the capital Osgiliath from the forces of Mordor during the early part of the Third Age. As Gondor's power weakened, it was then taken by the forces of Mordor, and used as a base to attack Gondor and in the process, decayed into the dark fortress and was renamed as a result.