The city of Minas Tirith was built on a hill rising beneath the great mountain of Mindolluin. As the city rose, it was divided into seven tiers or circles built one within the other, each surrounded by its own wall. Within each of these walls was a single gate leading to the circle above, and together these formed the Seven Gates of Minas Tirith.

The main entrance to the city was its Great Gate, which opened to the roads that ran in from the plain outside. The Great Gate of Minas Tirith faced directly eastward, one of only two of the gates to do so. This Gate was destroyed by the great battering ram known as Grond during the War of the Ring, but was replaced by another, made from mithril and steel by Gimli and the Dwarves of the Glittering Caves.

Behind the Great Gate, a narrow rock thrust upward through the city and out eastward from the hill, so the remaining gates could not continue in the same direction as the Great Gate. Instead, the gates to the other circles were staggered in arrangement, with roads climbing between them through tunnels in the rock as it intersected the circles. The gate into the second circle opened to the southeast, while that to the next circle opened to the northeast. This arrangement continued as Minas Tirith rose on its hill, so the fourth and sixth circles had southeastward gates, while the fifth gate, like the third, pointed to the northeast.

This arrangement came to an end with the Seventh Gate, the gate to the city's Citadel and the High Court. Here the road turned to the west and cut upward through the wedge of rock, forming a ramp through a dark tunnel that ended at the last of the seven gates. This Seventh Gate is described as standing in an arch, with a crowned head carved on its keystone. Whether a similar description applied to the other gates is not said, though presumably the carved crown related to the Citadel as the seat of Gondor's Kings and Stewards. If the other gates were similar in design, they would therefore have likely carried different carvings above their arches.

As the entrance to Minas Tirith's highest and innermost circle, the Seventh Gate had a contingent of guards, the Guards of the Citadel, but the other gates, too, seem to have been individually guarded. At least, this is implied by the fact that passwords were needed to pass through them, which in turn implies that guards watched each of the Gates, at least in time of war.¹