Battle of Helm's Deep
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The Battle of Helm's Deep, also called the Battle of the Hornburg, is a fictional battle in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings that saw the total destruction of the forces of the Wizard Saruman
Helm's Deep is based on Cheddar Gorge, a steep-sided limestone valley in South West England, seen here in the 1890s
The caves in Cheddar Gorge inspired Tolkien's Glittering Caves of Aglarond, at the head of the gorge of Helm's Deep.
Tolkien made use of Livy's tale of the heroic bridge defence by Horatius Cocles, perhaps partly via Macaulay's version in his 1842 Lays of Ancient Rome.
The Battle of Helm's Deep in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Cheddar Gorge
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Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Great Britain's oldest complete human ske
Battle of Helm's Deep
…from which the Orcs never emerge; the Huorns bury the Orcs' bodies in an earthen mound known as "Death's Down". Tolkien based Helm's Deep on England's Cheddar Gorge, and the Glittering Caves of Aglarond on the cave complex that he had visited there. The army of Rohan was according to Tolkien armed and equipped much…
Cheddar Gorge in 2013
Aerial photograph, showing the cliff faces to the south (right hand side of picture) and the slopes to the north
A goat in the gorge
Stalagmites and stalactites in Gough's Cave