Middle Earth in 420,000 Matchsticks

For nearly three years, matchstick modeler Patrick Acton has been building a painstaking replica of Minas Tirith, Gondor’s “Great White City” in the Lord of the Rings saga; countless hours and 420,000 matchsticks later, he’s done as of mid-last month.

From the replica’s description on Matchstick Marvels:

Acton’s version of Minas Tirith is one of his biggest and most detailed matchstick models yet, as he has constructed his rendition of the tremendously ancient city that Tolkien says “appears hewn from the rock of Mount Mindolluin” in the White Mountains. Tolkien’s fortress city is said to tower 700 feet above the Pelennor Fields in Middle Earth’s land of Gondor. Acton’s matchstick version of the seven-level city was started in 2007 and took nearly three years to complete in February 2010. The Minas Tirith model contains hundreds of city buildings and is topped with the Citadel, the Tree of Gondor, and the White Tower of Ecthelion.

The model will be on display at the Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center in Gladbrook, Iowa for the next year.

(via Bleeding Cool)