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EtymologyĬirith Ungol is Sindarin for "Spider's cleft", from cirith ("cleft, pass") and ungol ("spider").

Only through use of the Phial of Galadriel could the ring-bearer and his servant break these entities' will and enter. At this time, there were also three-headed statues that "watched" the gateway into the keep of Cirith Ungol which could not be passed by mortals. In the Quest of the Ring, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee were led to this pass by Gollum to the lair of the ancient spider Shelob. The tower was likely occupied by evil forces before Minas Ithil was besieged in TA 2000. After the Plague, Gondor again occupied Cirith Ungol but they were eventually distracted by the Wainriders, and evil was allowed to return to Mordor. Gondor occupied the tower guarding the pass until TA 1636 when the Great Plague killed much of Gondor's population. The cleft as seen in Peter Jackson's third film Under Sauron Eventually, the path ran straight into Shelob's lair, though many side-tunnels had been carved by Orcs and Men to get past her webs.

The pass was reached by several sets of steep stairs leading from close by Minas Morgul up the north cliff-face of Morgul Vale and through a tunnel high in the mountains, with other steep stretches that lacked stairs.

It is not known whether the pass and the tower were called Cirith Ungol when the Men of Gondor held it, though it is likely since Shelob ".was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr" was laid, and Cirith Ungol meant 'Spider's Cleft' in Sindarin. It was guarded by the Tower of Cirith Ungol, which was built by the Men of Gondor after the War of the Last Alliance was fought. Cirith Ungol passed through the western mountains of Mordor and paralleled the Morgul-road into Gondor to some degree.