Mordor

Mordor

Mount Ngauruhoe is an active stratovolcano in New Zealand. It is the youngest vent in the Tongariro volcanic complex on the Central Plateau of the North Island, and first erupted about 2,500 years ago. Although often regarded as a separate mountain, geologically it is a secondary cone of Mount Tongariro. The volcano lies between the active volcanoes of Mount Tongariro to the north and Mount Ruapehu to the south, to the west of the Rangipo Desert and 25 kilometres to the south of the southern shore of Lake Taupo. Mount Ngauruhoe was used as a stand-in for the fictional Mount Doom in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, achieving worldwide exposure. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor is the realm and base of the arch-villain Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was surrounded by three mountain ranges, to the north, the west, and the south. These both protected the land from invasion and kept those living in Mordor from escaping.