A hidden passage that ran beneath the Tower of Cirith Ungol in Ephel Dúath on the western borders of Mordor. It led down under the tower and issued into the twisted tunnels of Shelob's Lair. Given the danger from Shelob herself, the Orcs of the Tower had secured the entrance to the Under-way with a huge stone slab, and it was through this Undergate that they passed with Frodo's poisoned form on 13 March III 3019, leaving Sam Gamgee locked out by the great stone that they used to guard the way.
Notes
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The Tower of Cirith Ungol was raised by the early Gondorians as part of their guard on Mordor at the end of the Second Age. We do not know whether it was these original builders who also created the Under-way that connected the Tower to Shelob's Lair. On balance, it seems rather more likely that the tunnel was installed by the Orcs after the Tower fell into the hands of the Enemy, some two millennia after the Tower was originally raised.
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- Updated 9 February 2025
- Updates planned: 1
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