Archeologists Have Found The “Real-Life Helm's Deep" During Dig In Iran

A bunch of ancient coins have taken a team of researchers to a place which is believed to be hiding a 2000-year-old fort, located in what’s been described as a “real-life Helm’s Deep” from The Lord of the Rings, the Express reports. Yes, really.

Take a look at the trailer for the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, below.

The archeologists are being led by Heidelberg University’s Michael Brown, and have discovered the millennia-old military and religious complex in Iran’s Zagros Mountains. As well as a stone fortress and two settlements, buildings known as Rabana-Merquly have been found at the border to Adiabene - an ancient kingdom.

“Regardless of its exact identification, Rabana-Merquly was undoubtedly a major regional centre on the edge of the Zagros Mountains,” Brown told Zenger News. “The fortress shows us the practicalities of territorial control in hinterland regions of empire, where state authorities interacted with semi-autonomous and often restive highland pastoralist populations.

“The most exciting aspect of the site is definitely the natural setting. Rabana-Merquly is located on the western side of Mt. Piramagrun, one of the most spectacular mountains in the Zagros range, the western side of which runs through Iraqi Kurdistan,” he continued. “Its fortifications enclose naturally defensible terrain, and can be viewed as an extension of the surrounding highland landscape. If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings, it's basically a real-life Helms Deep.”

Currently, the team plan to continue their research and carry on digging at the site, although Brown didn’t indicate whether any treasure has been found.