Delta of Anduin

Where the Great River Anduin emptied into the Bay of Belfalas, it broke into many streams, creating a wide delta that stretched for some forty miles along the southern coasts of Gondor. This delta was most commonly known by its Elvish name of Ethir Anduin, or the Mouths of Anduin, but it was occasionally¹ described as the 'Delta' of the Great River.

As it divided into numerous separate courses, the Great River became shallow and silted, especially on its western side, so that it was originally impassable to larger vessels. When the Númenóreans began to settle this stretch of Middle-earth's coasts in the later Second Age, they therefore made a deep sea-channel running through the central parts of the delta, so that ships could voyage through Anduin's Mouths and come to the deeper water of the river's main course. Thus the Men of Númenor were able to establish a port farther up Anduin at the point where the river Sirith joined Anduin's waters. This port, Pelargir, was founded in II 2350, and was still in use more than four thousand years later, as was the sea-way through the delta that led to it.

During the Third Age, the Delta of Anduin was part of the coastlands of the realm of Gondor. Its people were mariners or fisherfolk for the most part, making a living from the many waterways that ran through their lands. At the time of the War of the Ring, a hundred or more of these folk travelled northward to aid in the defence of Minas Tirith, some two hundred miles upriver from the delta that was their home.