Dry Tree

The purported location—somewhere in Khorasan, near the border with present day Turkmenistan—is also impossible to ascertain, because Darius had already been assassinated when Alexander reached these regions.

[3] The tale runs that the Dry Tree has been lifeless since the crucifixion of Christ, but that it will flower afresh when "a prince of the west side of the world should sing a mass beneath it".

[4] Legends of Alexander the Great tell that he found the phoenix, a bird able to bring itself back to life, in the branches of the Dry Tree.

[1] A solitary dry tree is visible on the Issus-mosaic from Pompeii, showing where Alexander met Darius the Great of Persia.

It stands in the Court of the Fountain at the top of the city, dry and lifeless throughout the centuries that Gondor was ruled by the Stewards.

Medieval manuscript illustration of the Dry Tree (centre) with the Phoenix , flanked by the Trees of the Sun and the Moon . Rouen 1444–1445 [ 1 ]
Coat of arms bearing the white tree of Gondor , likened to the Dry Tree [ 4 ] .