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O r t h a n c

The tower in Isengard that was controlled by the evil Wizard Saruman during the War of the Ring was called Orthanc, meaning "cunning mind" in Rohan. It was built in the midst of the fortified Isengard plain at the southern limit of the Misty Mountains and near the source of the River Isen. Orthanc was a fivehundred foot tall tower built from four pillars of black rock by the Men of Gondor. It had a distinctive twin-pronged pinnacle with a flat roof between, marked with figures from astonomy.

Abandoned by the Men of Gondor during the last part of the Third Age, the Wizard Saruman gained the keys to it in 2759 and took control of it and the Palantíri, or "Seeing Stones", that were kept in one of its chambers.

Later he gathered a vast army within Isengard and made war on the Rohirrim. From Orthanc, Saruman controlled many destructive machines of war, but these were incapacitated by the Ents when they flooded the plain about the tower. But the black stone of the tower appeared to be invulnerable to assault, for the stone of Orthanc could not be broken.
Eventually, Saruman was forced to surrender the tower, and Orthanc once passed into the hands of the Men of Gondor.

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