To the north of Mordor ran the range of Ered Lithui, the Ash Mountains, and to the west ran Ephel Dúath, the Mountains of Shadow. In the northwest of the Dark Land, the two ranges met, and between them ran a narrow pass with sheer cliffs on either side. This pass was called Cirith Gorgor in Elvish, poetically translated as the 'Haunted Pass' (though the Elvish name literally meant 'pass of great dread').
Sauron defended this entrance to his land by building a stone rampart from one side of the pass to the other, in which was set the Morannon, the Black Gate of Mordor. After his first defeat at the end of the Second Age, the Dúnedain added defences of their own: a watchtower was built on a hill on each side of Cirith Gorgor. Ultimately these guard towers were taken by Sauron's own forces, and at the time of the War of the Ring they were known as the Towers of the Teeth, a part of the formidable defences of the Haunted Pass.
Notes
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The use of the word 'haunted' here does not appear to be literal. The name 'Haunted Pass' derives from Elvish Cirith Gorgor, which would be more precisely translated as something like 'pass of great dread', with no direct implication of any kind of 'haunting'. So, the use of 'haunted' in the translated name seems to be intended to suggest the sense of terror felt by one passing into Mordor, rather than suggesting that the pass was actually 'haunted'.
That said, it was clearly within the capabilities of the Dark Lord to have sent evil spirits or wraiths to guard the way into his realm, so it is by no means impossible that the Haunted Pass really was haunted. No such beings are directly described, and on balance the figurative reading seems the more likely, but the possibility of an actual haunting of the pass cannot be entirely dismissed.
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