the numenors built them for some mysterous reason.perhap they where a secret way to get in and out of what became later mordor for spies.the orcs would never know they where there but gollum would ferret them out.

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proud to be a pipe smoker like JJRT

Or it was just a way to get up to the tower from Minas Ithil...

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an old mystery.i always remember a scene in the return of the king when aragorn and co are in that ghosty place full of undead ghost warriors and they come to a sealed compartment where a skeleton was trying to get into it.aragorn stares and says"who was he,what is in there that he desperatly wanted to get to?we shall never know"

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proud to be a pipe smoker like JJRT

^Huh???



But in the TTT book, aren't the stairs quite a distance away from Minas Morgul?

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Not really--they're actually in the Morgul Vale, or right at the entrance, anyways--they are before the bridge, just as they are in the movie, but I think the distance from the bridge to the city itself was greater in the books, though not by a lot.

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with lots of interesting things to see.ive thought of doing a story about an archealogical dig there.

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proud to be a pipe smoker like JJRT

I always imagined these stairs not really like stairs.

I had something like this image: "And Gollum led them to a secret way that only he knew that was like stairs, very steep and very high"

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I imagined them as stairs. Always. Not quite so steep and poorly-constructed as in the movie, but similar.

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Are they vertical and as scary as they are portrayed in the movie?

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They aren't vertical, they're just said to be steep enough that at times they had to use their hands as well as their feet.

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and very dark and scary!

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proud to be a pipe smoker like JJRT

I didn't remember them as dark and scary, just steep and old.

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ive always thought of it as one of the most scary scenes in LOTR.

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proud to be a pipe smoker like JJRT

I do recall that they did not require to use their hands and feet during the entire climb. I think it was just Peter Jackson's interpretation of them.

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<center>~*The Not-Too-Much-Obsessed-With-Nature A-U Gentle-Woman*~<center>
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I like the atmosphere they bring about to the movie in particular. They are creepy and they make you wonder what the purpose of them was and what creatures have used them over the years hence the fact this thread was set up lol.

But no...they are devstatingly original and really add to the feel of evil on the road to Mordor.

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I do agree that the way they are depicted are better for the film. I am glad that PJ really considered what would be good on film and what would not.

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