Harad

Harad, also called Haradwaith, is the great southern region of Middle-earth, lying below both Gondor and Mordor, with the sea on its western side and Khand to the north-east. Its people are the Haradrim, whom the northern realms call Southrons. The land is reckoned in two parts. Near Harad, closest to Gondor and Mordor, is largely desert, with a gulf biting into its south-eastern coast and a river running inland from it that forks, one arm bending west toward Umbar. Far Harad beyond it is vast and varied, and its southern reaches are forest and jungle; the mûmakil, the huge beasts that hobbit rhymes call Oliphaunts, come from there. Between Harad and Gondor lies Harondor, or South Gondor, a stretch of borderland the two have long contested. In earlier ages the Númenóreans came to these coasts, first as teachers of crafts and afterwards as overlords.