Isengard

At the southern feet of the Misty Mountains, where the Gap of Rohan opens between the ranges, The Fellowship of the Ring places a fortress older than any of its dwellers. Isengard is a great circle of natural rock enclosing a green plain, and at its center rises Orthanc, a tall tower of black stone from the great days of the Men of the West. The fastness commands the road between north and south, and the builders of old raised it to guard that passage. In the latter days of the Third Age it is the dwelling of Saruman the White, head of the order of wizards, who keeps his study and his counsels there far from other eyes. Travelers on the south road know Isengard as a place of power, gated, walled, and not lightly visited, where the wisest of the wise pursues his long researches.