Discover New Zealand, Home of Middle Earth
	Morning in Dunharrow, and the dew is damp on the grass of the plain at Harrodale, looking toward the distant Irensaga to the left and the Dwimorberg on the right. Here King Theoden gathered the Riders of Rohan from the surrounding hills and villages for the Muster of Rohan, and the assault on the forces of Mordor. To the right, and in the photos immediately below, is the area where the riders were camped, and from which they began their 310 mile journey to Minias Tirith.
	During the Muster of Rohan there was a great concourse of men in this space, and here they pitched their ordered rows of tents and booths. They were a great army, yet not enough to defeat the forces of Mordor. This is the area shown in the film where the riders streamed northward towards Edoras and the road to Minas Tirith, and where Merry and Princess Eowyn, in the guise of Dernhelm, joined the company in pursuit of their heroic destiny.
	Further north, the village of Underharrow lies just to the east of the Snowbourn. The mountain in the background is the Irensaga, and the road to Edoras is to the left in the left photo and is shown north of the village at right. The land is wider here, not so easily defended as at Dunharrow, but is a good place for horses, and those belonging to the people of Edoras may have been turned out to pasture, when not otherwise needed, to graze on the lush grass
	The Great West Road turns to the east after passing around the foot of Edoras, and runs along the foothills of the Irensaga until it meets the Folde beside the river and turns southeast toward the Fenmarch. There is an actual road here, in addition to the grassland more suitable for horses, and the roadway is packed hard with a surface of crushed stone. No doubt it was made for heavy wagons that plied this route in the days of trading and travel between Rohan and Gondor
	The Snowbourn is wide and shallow where it meets the Entwash, and the waters from both sluggishly discharge into the Fenmarch and the boggy Mouths of the Entwash where it joins the Anduin. The Rohirrim camped here, some 36 miles from Edoras, no doubt to identify and send back any wounded or unfit riders. The route from this point is narrow, being constrained on the north by the Entwash and the south by the rugged foothills of the White Mountains.
	Theoden's army camped again at the Firien Wood, below the Halifirien Beacon, a sacred place, known as the Holy Mountain and the Hill of Awe. The woods flank the road on both sides, and there is said to be a path and a rock stair, which we could not find, which leads up to the beacon. Reputedly there was once a fortification of some sort here, but we did not find any buildings or ruins which might have indicated where they once stood. There is some wood cutting though, and we found piles of dead branches and logs. The fuel for the great Halifirien beacon may have come from this very spot. There is also a small creek bed that we assumed is the Mering Stream, which marks the nominal eastern boundary of Rohan.
	The Mering Stream, like all of the small water courses that trickle out of the White Mountains here, can hardly be called a creek. It was probably chosen as the boundary between Rohan and Gondor because of the strategic location of the nearby Firien Wood, which provides a natural place to repel an attack from Anorien even without a fort or other reinforcement. Here it meanders lazily into the Entwash and then into the Anduin, about 50 miles away.
	The Great West Road continues southeast along the foothills, passing through narrow, grassy plains bordered by green slopes up into the mountain peaks. In the left photo is the road east of the Calenhad Beacon, and on the right one can see the tip of the snow capped Min-Rimmon. Ahead, to the left in this photo, are the beacons at the tops of Erelas and Nardol, that are also capped by beacons far above. These were beacons lit to call Rohan to the aid of Gondor.
	Here and there along the route in Anorien are outcroppings of the white chalk that give the White Mountains their name. There are also roads and open wooded areas here that were probably once used by wagons hauling firewood and supplies up to the beacons and the fortresses and barracks of the soldiers who tended them. The Rohirrim camped somewhere along here, where the path widens out in the vale of the Anduin south of the Mouths of the Entwash.
	The Riders camped on the fourth night among the pine woods under Eilenach, and were met by the Woses, or wild men of Druadan Forest. The area to the left is the only place that fit all the descriptions, but since men are now forbidden to enter this area, we gave it a wide berth. At the edge of the woods, the land slopes downward from Amon Din, the last of the beacons before Minas Tirith. This may be the location of the orc camp Ghan-buri-Ghan enabled the Rohirrim to bypass.
	The plain now begins to open as the way turns south around Mount Mindolluin and heads south to the Pelennor and the city of Minas Tirith. There are low, broken foothills here, but the ground rises less sharply than it does at the eastern end of the Druadan Forest around Amon Din. There was once a wall here, the Rammas Echor, that protected the plain from attack from the north, but now there is only a line of trees and bushes where once it may have stood.
	We were unable to find the white city of Minas Tirith, or, indeed, any trace of it, but there is no mistaking the Pelennor Field where the great battle took place. The battle was well developed when the Rohirrim arrived, and Theoden charged into the massed armies of Mordor to his death at the hands of the Ringwraith, who in turn was slain by Eowyn and Merry, neither of whom were "living men." Here also Legolas and Gimli competed with each other in the destruction of orcs.
	As evening fell across the Pelennor, we could look as Pippin and Gandalf did toward the Ephel Duath, the Mountains of Shadow. They are not now as menacing as they were, although they still look dark and covered with clouds and mist in the fading light. But there are now no fires, no red sky at dusk, no hint of the evil that once resided in Mordor from the power of Sauron. We decided this was a good area to set up our camp, where the gate of Minis Tirith once stood.
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