Minas Tirith

Now, I figured in the section on Gondorian society that the entire nation has 1,351,000. How did the Byzantines stack up population wise during the Crusades? The Byzantine Empire had a population of around 5 million at the time of the First Crusade when Constantinople was 200,000 to 250,000. But the population for the Empire was closer 2 million between 1320 and 1350, when Constantinople dropped from 150,000 to 80,000. This is significant to me as this is closer to when the Fall of Constantinople occurred and still within the period of the later Crusades.   So, the numbers are kinda rough for me here. So I am going to whip out some ratios. During the First Crusade, there were between 20 and 25 people in the Empire as a whole for every 1 in the capital. This changed to between 13 and 25 in the later period. I'm going to focus on the First Crusade because it is a narrower range to work with. This gives us a population range for Minas Tirith of between 54,040 and 67,550. But I will go with 67,550 because it is still the capital.   So, Minas Tirith is 67,550. The port that is right next to Minas Tirith but technically separate from it would see a population boost from the location of the river and proximity to Minas Tirith. But it would also suffer as people would most likely prefer to move to the bigger city with more jobs. So I'll say it is 1,000 people.   Ian Morris. "Social Development" (PDF). Ianmorris.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2015-06-20.   Now, I was unable to find the population density for Constantinople. But most of the population would have to live outside the main mountain areas. Otherwise you would see an impossibly high population density of at best 216,160 per square mile. There are a host of social and political implications to this, such as those behind the main walls would be the elites – nobles, civil servants, rich merchants and landowners, religious officials and other important people. Their household servants would also likely be among the residents of the walled section. The offices of government departments, guilds, military barracks and workshops and similar buildings would be here as well – the result is power and wealth protected by the walls and the more of it you have the more walls. Your elevated social position would be matched with literal elevation, so looking down on the common people would be not just a metaphor.

Minas Tirith, as we all know by this point, is the capital of Gondor. It also is close to a major trade route and has its own local port. Technically, Osgiliath is a much better trading location, but it was too exposed to attack. Which means that Minas Tirith became the next best thing. In turn, Minas Tirith would be the commercial, cultural, and diplomatic center of the entire state, not just the heart of domestic politics.   While the Citadel appears to provide little additional protection, it does centralize the high value locations of the city. The Steward's house, headquarters of the Tower Guard and rooms for important guests were located here. Which meant that the government offices still had impressive protections.   So, like a lot of the analysis thus far, I will be borrowing from the Byzantines. The government of Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire was based on dividing the city into 14 districts. This can be copied in Minas Tirith through one district to the north and south of the rock spur on each of the 7 levels. But the Citadel takes up the entire top level, so I think it would have one district. The area outside the base level would probably constitute its own district too.   The chariot race track in Constantinople was important politically. Frequently, it was here that the public would make their displeasure known regarding unpopular ministers. New Emperors were also publicly acclaimed after their coronation here. Many riots with political/religious importance erupted here too. Now, I am not sure what public building would take a similar role in the politics of Minas Tirith, but I would not be surprised of some public build did.   Mass food aid was also given out to residents of the capital. Around 360 AD when the program was instituted, Constantinople had 150,000 people and gave out 80,000 rations a day. For a similar scale, this would mean Minas Tirith would feed 30,398 people every single day.

The city as it stands in the books and movies is made of 7 distinct sections. Each one is further up the mountain from the previous one. Each as a wall with towers on the outside with a sing gate providing access. But these alternate sides such that one has to literally cross back and forth to get to the top. Now, this is hugely impractical for daily civilian life. But it is great for defense. We can assume though that there would not be much daily civilain traffic because there were passwords one needed to use to get through all but the outer gate.   The movie shows us elements that I have no information on in the books, so I will assume for the sake of simplicity that they are the same. The first it the main gate is recessed back between the towers, providing the possibility for flanking fire for the defenders to rain down on those attacking the gate. Second is the machicolations that appear to be there. I don’t know if they are functional, but I will assume they are. This is especially critical due to there being no moat. There are proper sized battlements on most of the walls, correcting another major flaw in Helm’s Deep. There are towers along the outer wall. Towers that included trebuchets up to level 4 for a total of 100. A surprisingly good idea to incorporate into defense, but highly impractical to use as Minas Tirith as depicted does. The space needed for the trebuchets and the men would have been significant, and the effort needed to get the stone to them seems like almost impossible in real siege conditions.   Also important is the difference in the construction of the walls. In the books, the walls were much taller, especially on the outer walls and made with seriously heavy duty stone. The outer walls were same stuff that Isengard is made out of, which was so strong that the outer walls were "unconquerable by steel or fire, unbreakable except by some convulsion that would rend the very earth on which it stood.". The furious assault of the ents barely even made a dent in it after several days of uncontested attacks on the structure. Meanwhile, the walls in the movies proved much lower and easier to breach via bombardment. Then there is the sheer height - each level was 100 feet above the one below it, adding to the already extreme advantage walls naturally give in this realm.   Generally, they both share an overwhelming advantage in a siege. Only the outer wall could be breached with bombardment, sapping or ladders. Even this would be hard to do. The fact that an extremely high mountain side is the main defense at all other levels, these would be impossible in the constraints of a siege except for maybe ladders – which even then in only limited conditions that I will get to in the tactics part. This forces direct attacks on corridors that are too winding for large battering rams (like Grond) to work. Pathways between gatehouses that are too narrow and include extremely sharp turns is a common defensive feature added to forts and castles that makes bringing in battering rams as hard as possible. At the same time, these form bottlenecks and easy kill zones between them. Thus, this overall is a pretty solid defense. The default is in my mind much stronger than Helm’s Deep. But it does have flaws that Mordor was able to exploit to its advantage.   Now, I would suspect that this system of walls from Constantinople would form the dividing line between the civilian areas on the plains and the government area built on the mountain itself. After all, the main civilian areas would probably have grown up organically after the 7 main walls we see in the official version would have been built. Granted, 5.4 sq. miles were enclosed inside the Theodosian Walls and these included 26 million at its height during the Byzantine Empire. They were also 6.43 miles long. It seems possible then that Gondor could have included the entire surface area of Minas Tirith inside Theodosian style walls if the timeline worked out.   Given that the walls were built closer to Gondor’s peak, I would imagine that the larger scale of things would be used. For the great wall, this would mean towers 20 meters tall and 12 wide. The octagonal towers would provide less dead space, so I think the Great Wall towers would be of this design. Crescent-shaped towers do this as well, so I suspect that the outer wall would be crescent. Just consistently 14 meters tall and 4 meters wide. The Great Wall would be 6 meters thick and 12 high while the the outer wall would be 2 meters thick and 9 meters tall. The earthwork would be kept mostly the same, just with the moat filled with water. I would add machicolations to all three walls.   Now, clearly the biggest problem is the fact that there is no moat. A civilization like Gondor should have no problems creating a moat given the river and bay nearby. This would pose serious problems for the battering rams the scale of Grond or the siege towers used in the battle. Placing Minas Tirith on a mountain was a very solid tactic and usually moats are only needed when the fortified area is not on a hill. Now, just because a moat is not needed does not mean it is not an incredibly good idea. Also – if Constantinople can pull off a moat, there is absolutely no reason Gondor can’t. As a result, I would think a similar moat and support wall would be used.   Next, the towers are single platform and open air, making them much harder to defend. This is especially true when facing the Ring Wraiths. There were elements put on walls called hoarding that were basically temporary roofs that protected against arcing arrow fire and other missiles. Their spacing is a bit too far apart as well, so it is possible that orcs could march in the middle of them and only get hit by one or maybe none of the towers. Again, the Theodosian style walls would have solved this as well. Not only were towers on the Theodosian Walls much closer together, they had interior space to shoot from. This means even without protection for the roof, archers could still have cover. The machicolations allow for firing at the troops right at the base, but closer spacing of towers would make life so much harder for the attackers.   According to the Atlas, each ring probably had enough space for a main road, two smaller lanes and two rows of buildings. That is small enough to cover the entire area from one wall. This means that rear facing battlements could be added on the walls. This would allow cover for troops on the walls in case of a breach to either retreat without taking fire from the ground below or to fire on those attacking troops from both sides. Remember – the more kill zones the better.   The battlements near the gatehouse are too short here, unlike the rest of the walls, critically undermining gate defense. Also, gatehouse at the main entrance would have made the breach so much harder. Instead of a glorified steel door that Mordor faced in the real battle, it would have had to face a drawbridge, two reinforced doors with a portcullis and arrow slits on either side and murder holes above. This would have made life so much harder for the attackers. This can be applied to the others. They do not need to be as grand as the first – perhaps maybe a single door and portcullis and flanking towers. These flanking towers could be toned down a bit too, as the gate would essentially already be in a kill zone due to the walls on either side of the road. But so long as there is room to shoot from the top and sides as enemies pass through I will be happy. So too would at least two levels inside that can shoot forward at attackers.   Though to be fair to Minas Tirith for a second, the gate itself was steel and iron. It also withstood at least two days of attack before it fell. And when it did fall, it took the magic of the Witch King and the power of Grond. I'm not trying to say that Minas Tirith's gate was bad per se, just that any help it can get is always a good idea.   Personally, I would add two gates at each wall and in the tunnels, separated by enough space for two to three soldiers to stand in. This allows some form of arrow slit and murder hole use. Again, not a lot would be needed, just enough to kill troops as they go through and slow them down so that the kill zones in front of the gate can be exploited. A split between the two would probably be a good idea to add at the last wall, as that would be the last line of defense – extra resources there would be useful if it came to that point. These gatehouses would result in more time for retreat and the orcs getting killed from three sides as they stop to break through two layers of defense.   Beyond the drawbridge and gatehouse, the addition of a barbican would be extremely useful. This is essentially a courtyard in front of the main gatehouse. This essentially means a second gatehouse, more towers and the use of the courtyard as a kill zone with the potential for traps. Combined with battlements on both sides of the walls around the courtyard and you get a very nice little bit of extra death.   A note on the Drawbridge here. Given that the walls are so high, it would be possible to raise the entrance up several feet. The result would mean a staircase or ramp leading up to a platform that the drawbridge would connect to. What this does is make it so that even if the orcs are able to fill in the moat at the gatehouse, they still would not be able to get to the gate. They would need to build their own ramp up to get troops and a battering ram access. Again, a little extra delay can go a long way when you are getting pelted with arrows the whole time. The attacker’s ramp is the only practical means of getting the battering ram up (try doing it on ladders). But this exposes the access point to things like oil and such that can make the ground hard to walk on. This also goes further in neutralizing Grond.   A special note on the trebuchets. I like the idea of keeping them. However, if you extend the ground level outer wall out a bit (probably a good idea anyway to help protect some of the farmland), you can get the space to put them on the ground, which is needed to eliminate the tower related problems. This also gives them added protection without reducing effectiveness, as people in towers could be employed as spotters like in real life artillery and the shots would arc over the walls. Keep in mind that on the towers, the ring wraiths had no problems destroying them, On the ground, the sheer size of the Fell Beasts would make aerial attacks much harder. Not impossible, but still. As siege towers are a huge problem that needs to be accounted for in this battle, their continued presence would be a major benefit. Replace them in the towers with ballistae, which are both practical in towers and need the position. Now you have something that can help deal with the ring wraiths.   Minas Tirith has what amounts to a keep located at the top of the mountain, behind all 7 walls - the White Tower. I have no real information on its defenses, but it looks minimal and never saw action. That is why I did not really discuss it in the earlier section. Its ground level held ceremonial rooms, but it could easily be converted into something useful in a last stand. Another elevated entrance, drawbridge, gate and portcullis could be added to make access as hard as possible. The foyer could easily have rooms on all sides with arrow slits in the walls to shoot through. The room above the foyer can have not just the murder holes but also a platform extending out to add machicolations and arrow slits to allow fire at enemies not yet in. Of course this is on top of the roof top potential for archers, the spiral staircase that could be a deathtrap for attackers and platforms along it to shoot out of. Thus, even when the last of the walls has fallen, the siege is not yet over.   The rest of the top level contains the Citadel of Minas Tirith. Essentially, this constricted entrace via a tunnel and a small gate. Then there was an open field where the fountain and Tree were. Outside the walls and the gate, the "citadel" appears to add little defense to the White Tower. But at the same time, this is understandable. The White Tower, if constructed well enough would be an impressive target to take and the gate would be quite difficult to breach. Then there is the obvious logic of attackers getting this far means that hope seems irrational.   Lastly, the port. A series of walls running from Minas Tirith to the port could be added. These would allow the port to remain operational and continue to provide supplies to the city. Gatehouses, towers with overlapping fire arcs and battlements on either side could be added as well. These do not need to be as in depth as the main walls, but so long as they are good enough that they at least slow down an attack and kill more troops than the defenders lose. Ancient Greek walls were on average 25 feet tall and 8 feet thick, while fort walls were 15 feet tall and 6 feet thick. It seems reasonable to apply similar proportions. This would leave the port itself with heavier defenses. Meanwhile, the long walls, which do not need to be as strong, could be kept at the smaller size.   The next thing to note is that about the people would be living outside the main mountain walls, and thus vulnerable to direct attack. Now, I will be assuming a population of 100,000 with a 194 square miles of farmland. The idea is to allow for a pretty drastic decline in population here that would not be surprising due to the apparent state of Gondor for generations. The constant wars and epidemics would do that to a society, as would the famines we can expect.   A smaller stone wall out from the main city walls with watch posts and minor gatehouses would be beneficial. Now, there was the Rammas Echor, which is similar in shape and function to what I propose here. But I have little information on its construction. The 1.74 sq. miles that this wall would need to cover would need to be 4.65 miles long. If we assume one tower every 200 yards (allowing for a bow like the English Longbow to provide overlapping fire between them), you would have a need for about 41 watchtowers. Man them with 9 people so you can have 3 shifts of three people and you will need 369 men. Put three gatehouses – one at each of the main avenues of approach – with 4 people and the entire perimeter could be manned with 381 people.   Again, not much is likely here, I doubt there would be much a smaller army would invest to protect this area against a determined foe, but it would slow them down. We also have 3,000 in the estimated Gondorian Urban Cohorts protecting the city. This seems doable. This would be almost impossible to fully man on the scale of a main wall with the numbers we have to work with, so it is safe to assume that these would simply be a symbolic and minor slowdown during a large scale attack. It would have the benefit of providing advanced warning and stop raiding parties in advance of the main force. After all, this is meant to stop raiders, skirmishers and so forth. Also, the unfortunate reality is that the people protected by this wall would be the poor. I doubt that the government would invest much more in protecting the poor people.   Now, how would this perimeter wall that protect the civilian areas be constructed? I suspect that a replication of the earthwork with a dry moat. I would add a wood palisade on top of it though, with some more short towers for lookout posts. Wooden stakes placed outside or at the bottom of the moat would be a cheap and effective tool to slow down the enemy advance. I would keep the moat 20 meters from the earthwork, but shrink it down to only 5 meters across and 3 deep. Again, like the walls this is based on, they do not have to stop a full invasion – merely slow them down or block the smaller raiding parties.   If you think these seem too unrealistic, they are based on real historical castle designs from the medieval period. Also, the Atlas states that the walls of Minas Tirith in the books were 40,000 feet long in total and consisted of 2,000,000 TONS of stone – does not seem resources were an issue. The whole area I calculate out for the urbanized area would need 4.65 miles of wall when Constantinople's were 5.7 with the same design.   Athens also built 6 km of walls in a similar way to what I describe between itself and Piraeus. That is less than half of the wall space for Minas Tirith itself, which comes in at a little over 12 km. The port is about 3 miles from Minas Tirith, thus only requiring 30,000 feet of walls to cover both sides of the pass – 10,000 less than are in the walls of the city itself.

Based on Paris, we could expect 97 major traders/merchants based in the city.   Now, with the capital being natural center point for elite culture, luxury goods would be in demand. The businesses centered on their "needs" would be in the ball park of 271 fir traders, 169 jewelers, 75 wine merchants, 48 spice traders, 34 rug makers and another 34 sculptors. Plus 270 maids.

The White Tower of Ecthelion is the main building dominating the landscape of the city. This was due to being located at the top of the hill and being 300 feet tall. Inside was the throne room where the kings and stewards held court. In front was a fountain and the iconic white tree. It was also know as the location where the Seeing Stone was stored and used.   One of Constantinople's most notable assets was its library. A reported 100,000 manuscripts were held here. Many were the last remnants of the Library of Alexandria. We can assume that this would be replicated in Minas Tirith due to its role in Middle' Earth's history. Gondor was the one remaining Numenorean successor state left standing. So the remaining records and books from both Numenor and Arnor - not to mention all of Gondor's - would be stored here. Plus Minas Tirith would likely be the center of the political and economic elites of Gondor. You know, practically the only people in a medieval society with universal literacy.   "Preserving The Intellectual Heritage--Preface — Council on Library and Information Resources". www.clir.org. Retrieved 2016-02-28.   The Imperial University of Constantinople was also (shockingly) was in Constantinople. It apparently taught a wide range of topics, ranging from law, art, philosophy, rhetoric, medicine, math astronomy and economics. It too had a decent library.   "The Formation of the Hellenic Christian Mind" by Demetrios Constantelos, ISBN 0-89241-588-6:   When Constantinople became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, many of the greatest works of Roman and Greek art were imported. So like the books, it came to become a major repository of the area's culture.

Historically, skilled trades were rare. Usually only cities had both economically significantly large clusters of them and enough people to justify the training facilities needed to educate new professionals. Thus, they were a small portion of the total population, but economically quite powerful. The guilds tended to control these skilled trades. Because of the wealth generated by the skilled trades in the guilds, it seems entirely possible that the masters in the bigger guilds in larger cities could possibly be richer than the nobles. Well, at least equal to them.

Originally, Minas Tirith was a mere military outpost. Osgiliath was the main capital. Minas Morgul was the original home of the Gondorian Kings. At first, simply the summer court was held here. But gradually Minas Tirith grew in importance proportional to the decline in the rest of the area. It took the conquest and virtual destruction of these two cities to make Minas Tirith the city we see in the books. Over this same time, the White Tower and the main walls were built.

Now, we can imagine that the construction industry would be relatively developed. Based on the Paris data I found, we can expect that Minas Tirith would have 135 businesses based on masonry, 123 carpenters, 36 roofers and 48 plaster businesses.   In Constantinople, there was a huge construction boom when it became the capital. Major palatial estates, sports complexes, churches and so forth were built. Columns were actually stripped from the rest of the Empire to help with this. One major street had lines of columns down it. Domes were quite important features, becoming some of the most iconic building from the ancient world. The Hagia Sophia is a good example of the spending on public works here. It cost 20,000 pounds of gold to build. Apparently its staff had at least 80 priests out of a total of 600.   But these were built in the Golden Age. This cannot be maintained during a period of advanced decline. For Constantinople, this came about the time of the 4th Crusade. The city was occupied by the Crusaders, who then essentially let the city go into disrepair. Vandalism rose on top of the looting and destruction during the initial looting. Other buildings had the lead and bronze from their roofs melted with artistic masterpieces to get money for this "Latin Empire".   Now, Gondor did not see its capital occupied by a hostile power. But it does appear to be in financial decline. Pay for the army in a period of international tension would increase burdens, as would the ransoms to Southrons and Corsairs. Then the raids themselves with their resulting loss of wealth and trade. But I think the result would be the same. Funds would start to be stretched. The ability to prevent and repair damage would decline proportional to the increase in the temptation to use the precious metals to overcome increasingly common budget shortfalls.

Now, Le Mont-Saint-Michel does give us some geographic details we can use. First, granite is likely to be the main rock. The island was formed as erosion tore down the other rocks, leaving the more resistant to erosion granite. Specifically Leucogranite - a type of granite with no dark colored materials. Which sounds strikingly similar to the frequently used white stone used in Minas Tirith. Interesting is the circumference of Mont Saint Michel about 3,150 feet but only 302 feet high.   The layout of the city varies between book and movie, so some separate commentary will be needed. According to the Atlas, the hill it is on is 700 feet tall and diameter of the city is 3,100 feet. But the movie version is a bit bigger - the height from the foot of the gates to the top of the Tower of Ecthelion is around 1,000 feet with a diameter of (3,960 feet). The stone bisecting the city was 1,320 feet. The total height for the city is therefore somewhere between 1,000 and 1,620 feet.   These figures also leave us with a core part of the city that is 0.44 sq. miles for the movies. This means that the outer wall needs to be at least 9,739 feet long out of 40,000 total length of wall. This makes defending the outer wall significantly harder but progressively easier as one retreats inward – the reductions in wall space means higher density of troops on it.   We also know that the extreme outer wall (Rammas Echor) that circles the plains outside the walls is 34.52 miles long. This means that the area that is surrounded by this wall is between 379.3 and 189.65 depending on if we use the movie or book versions. Now, I was unable to find specific numbers regarding the actual population density for Constantinople. But I was able to find a medieval norm of 61 per acre. This means that a population of 67,550 would cover 1107.38 acres or 1.74 sq. miles. All this to say that everything appears within the realm of possibility regarding our numbers.   Both versions are located on a mountain, building all the way up to the top. There is also a concentration of the military and political structures at the very top as expected. Protecting the main city is a ring of 7 concentric walls protecting each level. A single pathway winds between the northeast and southeastern sides. It passes through the wedge that bisects the city. At each wall is a single gatehouse. They both also have a small port nearby and are close to Osgiliath. Both have a single, heavy duty gate with open, single platform towers on either side. Also – no moat. Even though there is a river and a bay nearby.   There are some differences in the sizes but not too major. The elevation of the hill in the books is 700 feet. The breath is 3,100 and the Tower of Ecthelion is 150 feet. The movie version is over 1,000 feet tall from the base of the gates to the top of the Tower of Ecthelion. The keel like stone protrusion is described in the same source as rising from behind the gate to the 7th level to a height of a quarter of a mile – which means the actual height of the city is closer to 1,320 feet. The diameter in the movies is 3,960 feet across.   A rock spur protrudes out from the top of the hill towards the east. This essentially divides the city in two. One of the more minor miss opportunities is the failure to fortify the parts where the road goes through here. One would not need to make these all that impressive or man them constantly. But a few men - possibly no more than 4-6, could seriously hold up an attacker.   The main difference between book and movie is behind the city. In the books, the mountain the city is on sits out from the main range and the city wraps all the way around it and on the ridge connecting the main mountain to that range. On top of that range is a group of tombs for kings and stewards. This area is a little lower than the top of the hill. As a result, the lower 5 walls run along the ridge to the mountains behind it. The top of the mountain and the ridge behind it has two walls protecting this passage. But this is important to me. While attacking from this way is incredibly difficult, there is no walls or defenses protecting the back of the tomb area. Which means the troops who can get this way would have easier terrain for the rest of their trip and only two walls to worry about. Meanwhile, in the movie this rear area is not present. The “Hill of Guard” is flush against the main range and the city only forms a semicircle on the outer face. This eliminates this potential security threat.

At first some basics. The size and scope of the city. The first thing that jumps out that is quite unrealistic is the complete absence of farmland. The exact amount of farmland needed is unclear, as none of my sources give population figures for Minas Tirith or its surrounding area. However, the Atlas states that the design is inspired by Crusader forts and provides the sort of aid sent by the rest for Gondor. That allows me to do some quick calculations and provides a point of comparison to the real world.   According to the FAO, you need half a hectare of land per person to be food secure. That means between 104.32 and 130.4 square miles of land for the populations I estimated. Keep in mind that Savannah is over twice this in population and Chatham County is over 600 square miles. This does not seem unreasonable. The result is a series of farms and probably little villages that would stretch out about 6.5 miles in any direction from Minas Tirith.   Chandler, Tertius; Fox, Gerald (1974). 3000 Years of Urban Growth. New York and London: Academic Press.