In the histories of Middle Earth there are two fortresses called Minas Tirith.

The first was built by the High Elves of Beleriand in the First Age of the Sun.It was built on the River Sirion. The second and more famous Minas Tirith stood in the land of Gondor during the Third Age.In the year 2002, when the fortress-city of Minas Ithil, the " Tower of the Moon", fell to the Nazgûl Witchking and was renamed Minas Morgul, the " Tower of Wraiths ",the men of Gondor changed the name of their remaining tower from Minas Anor, the " Tower of the Sun ", to Minas Tirith, the " Tower of the Guard " This proved to be an appropriate name; for over a thousand years Minas Tirith stood on guard against the evil forces that threatened to entirely destroy Gondor. Since the decline of of Osgiliath in the 17th centuary, this fortress had become the first city of Gondor,and all through the Third Age Sauron had consentrated his mind on destroying this last bastion of power. In 1900 , the city was strengthened by the raising of the White Tower, and again in 2968, the Ruling Steward Ecthelion l, rebuilt the tower and improved the defences of Minas Tirith. By the time of the War of the Ring, Minas Tirith was a formidable hill-fortress built on seven levels. Each level was terraced above the next and surrounded by massive ring walls. Each of these walls had only one gate,and for reasons of defence each faced a different direction from the one below it. The Great Gate on on the first wall faced East. This seemingly invulnerable fortress-city rose level by level like a great cliff for over seven hundred feet, to the seventh wall, which was called the citadel,and within that final ring wall was raised the mighty spire of the White Tower itself. So mighty were the defences of Minas Tirith that it took all the power of the Witch-King of Morgul himself to breach them, and even so, he got no further than breaking the great gate on the first wall when the charge of the Rohirrim cavalry drove him back and into the pelennor Fields, where his forces were destroyed. The saving of Minas Tirith was essential to the winning of the War of the Ring and the revival of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor.

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