King's Landing explained
A city grown from a soldier's fort into the greatest and foulest seat in Westeros — its three hills, its castle and sept, its ruin of a dragonpit, and the fire it keeps beneath the streets.
The three hills
Aegon's High Hill
Crowned by: The Red KeepThe tallest of the three, and the seat of kings. Here the Conqueror first set his banners after the Landing and threw up the timber Aegonfort; here the Red Keep rose in its place, and here every ruler since has held court above the Blackwater Rush.
SourcesFire & BloodThe World of Ice & FireVisenya's Hill
Crowned by: The Great Sept of BaelorNamed for the Conqueror's warrior-sister and queen. Its summit is crowned by the marble Great Sept, chief seat of the Faith in the city, and the Street of Sisters runs down from it toward Aegon's hill.
SourcesThe World of Ice & FireFire & BloodRhaenys's Hill
Crowned by: The Dragonpit ruinNamed for Aegon's younger sister-wife, who was lost in Dorne. Upon it the Targaryens raised the Dragonpit to stable their dragons; today only its broken dome remains, a blackened monument above the crowded streets below.
SourcesFire & BloodThe World of Ice & Fire
From the Aegonfort to the Red Keep
The capital was not planned but grew — from a soldier's fort into the greatest and foulest city in the Seven Kingdoms — and its heart was rebuilt more than once before it took the shape men know.
The Aegonfort
Where the three came ashore, Aegon raised a palisade of timber and earth atop the highest hill. It was a fort, not a king's seat — cramped and plain — and soon outgrown, for a town of traders, camp-followers, and petitioners swelled about it into a city faster than anyone had planned.
The Red Keep
A castle of pale red stone was begun to replace the wooden fort, the work driven on across years and, the darker chronicles insist, across blood. When it was done the Aegonfort was gone and the Red Keep stood in its place — seven drum-towers, the throne room that holds the Iron Throne, and the black cells sunk beneath.
Maegor's Holdfast
Within the greater castle a squat inner stronghold was raised, ringed by a dry moat set with iron spikes — a keep-within-a-keep to hold when all else has fallen. The masons and craftsmen who cut its hidden ways, the tale runs, did not all live to speak of them; the maesters set the story down but will not swear to it.
The landmarks
The Red Keep
The royal castle on Aegon's High Hill: seven drum-towers, the throne room and the Iron Throne, the Tower of the Hand, the maze of the black cells, and Maegor's Holdfast walled within its heart. From here the realm is ruled, or fails to be.
SourcesA Game of ThronesThe World of Ice & FireThe Great Sept
The chief seat of the Faith in the city, a vast marble sept crowned with seven crystal towers on Visenya's Hill, raised in the pious reign of Baelor the Blessed to replace an older sept. Its bells toll for the deaths of kings.
SourcesThe World of Ice & FireA Game of ThronesThe Dragonpit
A colossal domed pit on Rhaenys's Hill, built to house the royal dragons. Its dome was broken and its beasts undone amid the Targaryens' own civil war, and it has stood a gutted ruin ever since — a monument to a magic the dynasty let gutter and die.
SourcesFire & BloodThe World of Ice & FireFlea Bottom
The poorest and most crowded district, sunk in the low ground beneath the hills — a warren of wynds and alleys thick with the reek of the tanneries and the pot-shops that ladle out 'a bowl o' brown.' Its people are the first to riot when bread runs short and the last the crown remembers.
SourcesA Game of ThronesThe World of Ice & FireThe walls and seven gates
A high city wall pierced by seven gates — among them the King's Gate, the Iron Gate, the Gate of the Gods, and the Mud Gate above the river — girdles the whole. Beyond the Mud Gate the harbour crowds the mouth of the Blackwater Rush, where the city's wealth and its danger both come in by water.
SourcesA Game of ThronesThe World of Ice & Fire
The fire beneath the streets
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
The Sack of King's Landing
Long before the events of the novels, the city fell once to treachery from within. When the last dragon king shut his gates against a victorious rebellion, the great western host he had trusted to defend him turned its cloaks instead, and King's Landing was thrown open and given over to sack.
The bloodshed that followed — the murder of the royal children among it — stained the new reign at its very founding and lit feuds the realm has never truly put out. It is where any honest account of the present age begins.
What are the three hills of King's Landing?
The city rises on three hills, each named for one of the Conqueror's siblings. Aegon's High Hill is the tallest and bears the Red Keep; Visenya's Hill is crowned by the Great Sept of Baelor; and Rhaenys's Hill holds the ruined Dragonpit. Flea Bottom sprawls in the low ground between them.
Why is the Red Keep called the Red Keep?
It is built of pale red stone. The Targaryens raised it to replace the timber Aegonfort that Aegon the Conqueror first threw up on Aegon's High Hill, and the work was driven on across years — most of it, the chronicles say, under Maegor. When it was finished the wooden fort was gone and the Red Keep stood as the seat of the Iron Throne.
What is Flea Bottom?
Flea Bottom is the poorest, most crowded quarter of King's Landing, sunk in the low ground beneath the three hills — a maze of alleys thick with the reek of the tanneries and the pot-shops that sell 'a bowl o' brown.' Its people riot first when bread runs short, which makes them a power the crown forgets at its peril.
What is the Dragonpit?
The Dragonpit was a vast domed structure on Rhaenys's Hill, built to house the royal dragons. Its dome was broken and its dragons destroyed during the Targaryens' own civil war, and it has stood a burned-out ruin ever since — a reminder that the dynasty's dragons dwindled and died long before the dynasty did.