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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 9433388" data-attributes="member: 6787503">Not sure why nobody quotes the book, but assuming these are some of the structures [USER=18]@Ruin Explorer[/USER] was talking about, can you say more about why these locations would be "trivial" to find if they had once existed?Of course, we know Barad-dûr was destroyed along with the Ring which Sauron used to create its foundation, so I'm not sure what, if anything, of it was left.I can imagine large stone structures, such as enormous stone statues and a 700' tall hill built-up with stone, having existed and yet remaining undetected below the waters and sediments of the Mediterranean or having been destroyed by earthquakes or some other cataclysm. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantelleria_Vecchia_Bank_Megalith#:~:text=The%20Pantelleria%20Vecchia%20Bank%20Megalith,depth%20of%2040%20meters%20underwater." target="_blank">Pantelleria Vecchia Bank Megalith</a> wasn't found until 2015, and it's somewhat close the where I would imagine the Gates of Argonath to have been. Meltwater pulse 1C, which occurred sometime between 6,200 and 5,700 BC, probably resulting from the final collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet of northeastern North America, represents a sea level rise of 21' in less that 140 years. In the Iberian Peninsula, near where I imagine Minas Tirith to have been, this event is linked to greater summer aridity that caused an increase in the frequency of fires It's also likely, IMO, that JRR Tolkien had in mind something like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_flood_narrative" target="_blank">Genesis flood narrative</a> as a future event in his novel's setting. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piora_Oscillation" target="_blank">Piora Oscillation</a> (c. 3900-3000 BC) was a period of abrupt decrease in temperature and increase in rainfall which were believed to contribute to Babylonian and Hebrew flood myths. I imagine this is how the Fourth Age ended.</blockquote>

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