10 Tallest Buildings in Fantasy Movies and Shows Tom Cruise Would Totally Want to Climb
We’ll be straight with you: it’s essentially a battle between Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. But who wins it? Place your bets and check out this magical list.
Disclaimer: This article relies on BuildWorld’s research for structure height data.
10. Hogwarts — 100m or 328ft
Bet you didn’t expect this one right off the bat! Don’t worry, it’s the single competitor on this list that’s not from GoT or LotR.
The Hogwarts castle from the Harry Potter series is quite a tall building by Muggle standards with the Astronomy tower rising 100 meters above the ground. But for fantasy, that’s pretty low, so Hogwarts is only in 10th place.
9. Argonath — 146m or 479ft
And here we go. The lowest Lord of the Rings building on our list, the Argonath monument consists of two statues dedicated to Isildur and Anárion, the king brothers of Gondor. Argonath serves as a reminder to Gondor’s enemies to stay away, and it has the looks for it. The two statues are 146 meters tall and paired with their menacing looks, it does the job.
8. Orthanc — 152m or 498ft
The near-impenetrable tower of Isengard, Orthanc was the bastion of Saruman that made him almost unreachable after he went rogue. One of the most famous buildings of Lord of the Rings, Orthanc was created by Dúnedain, and those folks definitely knew how to build: the tower is over 152m tall and definitely looks scary enough.
7. The Red Keep — 160m or 525ft
Our first candidate from Game of Thrones, the Red Keep is the castle that overlooks King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. The Keep also holds the world’s potentially most famous fictional chair — the Iron Throne. A well-fortified fortress that it was, the Red Keep didn’t fare too well with a dragon, but it still made it fly quite high to reach its 160-meter-tall peak.
6. The Wall — 213m or 699ft
Another iconic fantasy structure from Game of Thrones, the Wall was built to protect Westeros from the horrors that come from the Far North. Crossing the entire continent, the Wall stretches across an impressive 300 miles or 482.8 kilometers. Its height, though can’t compare with length, is still no joke matter: the Wall is 213 meters tall.
5. Minas Morgul — 220m or 722ft
Initially known as the Tower of the Moon, Minas Morgul is another iconic Gondor fortification that was once used to protect the kingdom from the forces of Mordor but was later overtaken by them and used as their bastion. We can totally see why they wanted it: apart from its military purposes, it’s always cool to own a 220-meter-tall fortress.
4. The Hightower — 243m or 797ft
The place of power of House Hightower, the Hightower sits in Oldtown, the oldest city of Westeros. Continuing with this streak of increasingly obvious revelations, this building is, indeed, a pretty high tower — almost a quarter of a kilometer tall, it reigns over all the neighboring lands and serves as a reminder of the House’s pride and solitude.
3. The Great Pyramid of Meereen — 243m or 797ft
Surprisingly, Westeros doesn’t hold the Game of Thrones record for the tallest building with the Hightower: Essos, the second continent, has a structure of exactly the same height! The Great Pyramid of Meereen serves as the city’s administrative center and it’s much larger than our previous contestant though just as tall sitting at 243 meters.
2. Minas Tirith — 305m or 1000ft
Another creation of the Dúnedain of Gondor, Minas Tirith was once known as the Tower of the Sun. Like its sister fortress Minas Morgul, this tower lost its initial purpose several times and was, too, overrun by the forces of Mordor. It was the highest Lord of the Rings building built by the people of Gondor as its height exceeded 305 meters.
1. Barad-dûr — 1500m or 4921ft
Say what you will about Sauron, but Barad-dûr — or the Dark Fortress — proved once and for all that the maker of the One Ring was also the greatest builder in both Lord of the Rings and the entire fantasy genre. Sauron’s stronghold greatly surpassed all fictional and real-life structures in height reaching for the skies with its 1500-meter-tall tower. If it existed in real life, it would be taller than Burj Khalifa, the highest building on our planet, so Tom Cruise would definitely be up for a new challenge.
Source: BuildWorld