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Places in Middle-earth

East-gate of Moria, The

Type: Other Constructions

Region: Rhovanion/Misty Mtns

Other Names
Great Gates
Dimrill Gate
Moria-gate

Location: The main entrance to Khazad-dûm, on the east side of the Misty Mountains, facing the Dimrill Dale.

Description: 'I too once passed the Dimrill Gate,' said Aragorn quietly; 'but though I also came out again, the memory is very evil. I do not wish to enter Moria a second time.' ...

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 4, A Journey in the Dark

'Go carefully with the water, too! ... We may not have a chance of filling our skins and bottles till we come down into Dimrill Dale.'

'How long is that going to take us? ' asked Frodo.

'I cannot say,' answered Gandalf. ... 'It cannot be less than forty miles from West-door to East-gate in a direct line, and the road may wind much.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 4, A Journey in the Dark

'I now know where we are. This must be ... the Chamber of Mazarbul; and the hall must be the twenty-first of the North-end. Therefore we should leave by the eastern arch of the hall, and bear right and south, and go downwards. The Twenty-first Hall should be on the Seventh Level, that is six above the level of the Gates.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 5, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

[Said Gandalf,] ... 'we have reached the First Deep, the level immediately below the Gates. This is the Second Hall of Old Moria; and the Gates are near: away beyond the eastern end, on the left, not more than a quarter of a mile. Across the Bridge, up a broad stair, along a wide road through the First Hall, and out!'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 5, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

They passed into a hall, bright with daylight from its high windows in the east. They fled across it. Through its huge broken doors they passed, and suddenly before them the Great Gates opened, an arch of blazing light.

There was a guard of orcs crouching in the shadows behind the great door posts towering on either side, but the gates were shattered and cast down. Aragorn smote to the ground the captain that stood in his path ... Out of the Gates they ran and sprang down the huge and age-worn steps, the threshold of Moria. ...

They did not halt until they were out of bowshot from the walls. Dimrill Dale lay about them. The shadow of the Misty Mountains lay upon it, but eastwards there was a golden light on the land. ...

They looked back. Dark yawned the archway of the Gates under the mountain-shadow.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 5, The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

They rose and looked about them. Northward the dale ran up into a glen of shadows between two great arms of the mountains, above which three white peaks were shining: Celebdil, Fanuidhol, Caradhras, the Mountains of Moria. At the head of the glen a torrent flowed like a white lace over an endless ladder of short falls, and a mist of foam hung in the air about the mountains' feet.

'Yonder is the Dimrill Stair,' said Aragorn, pointing to the falls. 'Down the deep-cloven way that climbs beside the torrent we should have come, if fortune had been kinder.' ...

To the east the outflung arm of the mountains marched to a sudden end, and far lands could be descried beyond them, wide and vague. To the south the Misty Mountains receded endlessly as far as sight could reach. Less than a mile away, and a little below them, for they still stood high up on the west side of the dale, there lay a mere. ...

'There lies the Mirrormere, deep Kheled-zâram!' said Gimli sadly. ...

The Company now went down the road from the Gates. It was rough and broken, fading to a winding track between heather and whin that thrust amid the cracking stones. But still it could be seen that once long ago a great paved way had wound upwards from the lowlands of the Dwarf-kingdom.

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 6, Lothlórien

Contributors: Elena Tiriel 3Jul04, 15Jul04

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