--- ---  # These Architects Are Fundraising to Build a Real-Life _Lord of the Rings_ City ## Video: The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far) [Watch (HLS stream): The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S3M25t5U.m3u8) (4:16)  _Published 2012-05-17. TIME movie critic, Richard Corliss lists his top films of the millennium (Thus Far). For the full, list go to time.com/entertainment_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 13, 2015 2:53 PM UTC  Minas Tirith Minas TirithWingnut Films by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 13, 2015 2:53 PM UTC Attention _Lord of the Rings_ fans: Minas Tirith might be real — eventually. A self-professed “ambitious team of architects and structural engineers” has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the necessary funds to build the fictional city created by J.R.R. Tolkein and visualized by Peter Jackson in his cinematic version of _Lord of the Rings_. The architects ran the numbers and realized they would need approximately £1.85 billion (about $2.82 billion USD) to fully fund the project. Any leftover money would be used for the upkeep and maintenance of the new city of Minas Tirith and was projected to last until 2053\. On [their Indiegogo page](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/realise-minas-tirith#/story), the team wrote, “We believe that, in realising Minas Tirith, we can create not only the most remarkable tourist attraction on the planet, but also a wonderfully unique place to live and work.” The team has given themselves 60 days to raise the cash, which is as steep a climb as the stairs of Minas Tirith will be when the project reaches completion. To encourage donation, they’ve set up some attractive rewards. If you donate £100,000 ($155,800 USD) you earn the title of Lordship or Ladyship of the City, while a mere £3 (around $4.70 USD) donation gets you a follow on Twitter. At the time of publication, the [Indiegogo campaign](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/realise-minas-tirith#/story) had raised more than £16,000 ($24,000 USD), but still had 48 days to raise the rest. ### PHOTOS: See the 13 Actors Who Play the Dwarfs in 'The Hobbit'  Fili - Dean O’Gorman Warner Bros.; Anita Bugge—WireImage—Getty Images  Kili - Aidan Turner Warner Bros.; Gregg DeGuire—WireImage/Getty Images  Oin - John Callen Warner Bros.; Tschiponnique Skupin—Geisler-Fot/picture-alliance/dpa/AP  Gloin - Peter Hambleton Warner Bros.; Dave J Hogan—Getty Images  Dwalin - Graham McTavish Warner Bros.; David Livingston—Getty Images  Balin - Ken Stott Warner Bros.; Ben A. Pruchnie—Getty Images  Bifur - William Kircher Warner Bros.; Ray Tamarra—Getty Images  Bofur - James Nesbitt Warner Bros.; Ray Tamarra—Getty Images  Bombur - Stephen Hunter Warner Bros.; Joel Ryan—Invision/AP  Dori - Mark Hadlow Warner Bros.; Ray Tamarra—Getty Images  Nori - Jed Brophy Warner Bros.; Ray Tamarra—Getty Images  Ori - Adam Brown Warner Bros.; Anita Bugge—WireImage/Getty Images  Thorin Oakenshield - Richard Armitage Warner Bros.; Jason Merritt—Getty Images _Read next:_ [_Watch a Supercut of Every Onscreen Death in the_ ](http://time.com/3628745/lord-of-the-rings-supercut/?iid=time%5Freadnext)[Lord of the Rings _Trilogy_](http://time.com/3628745/lord-of-the-rings-supercut/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day_](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article) Lord of the Rings: Architects Crowdfunding to Build Real Minas Tirith ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3995934/lord-of-the-rings-city-real-life/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3995934/lord-of-the-rings-city-real-life/"},"headline":"These Architects Are Fundraising to Build a Real-Life Lord of the Rings City","datePublished":"2015-08-13T14:53:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:13.133Z","description":"They just need a couple of billion to do it","url":"https://time.com/3995934/lord-of-the-rings-city-real-life/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Crowdfunding","Kickstarter","Literature","Lord of the Rings"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfbf67da18185132/69885bc4428a9eeb4dcce446/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-return-of-the-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfbf67da18185132/69885bc4428a9eeb4dcce446/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-return-of-the-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"the-lord-of-the-rings-the-return-of-the-king","caption":"the-lord-of-the-rings-the-return-of-the-king","creditText":"Wingnut Films","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3995934/lord-of-the-rings-city-real-life/","name":"These Architects Are Fundraising to Build a Real-Life Lord of the Rings City"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)","description":"TIME movie critic, Richard Corliss lists his top films of the millennium (Thus Far). For the full, list go to time.com/entertainment","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/S3M25t5U/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2012-05-17T00:06:49.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S3M25t5U.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3995934/lord-of-the-rings-city-real-life/","duration":"PT4M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3995934/lord-of-the-rings-city-real-life/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```