In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Moria was an ominous name given by the Eldar to what had once been an enormous underground complex in north-western Middle-earth, comprising a vast network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls or 'mansions', that ran under and ultimately through the Misty Mountains. There, for many thousands of years, lived the Dwarf clan known as the Longbeard.
Known by other, brighter names over the course of its long history, this earthen city and one-time centre of dwarven industry was also called Hadhodrond by the Sindar, Casarrondo by the Noldor and Phurunargian in the Common Speech, all meaning the Dwarrowdelf. In its latter days of darkness, however, for over a thousand years of the Third Age it was widely known as Moria, meaning 'The Black Chasm' or 'The Black Pit'.
The Dwarrowdelf was founded by Durin 'the Deathless' in the far distant past, long before the creation of the Sun and Moon. Durin had awoken at Mount Gundabad not long after the Elves...
