Seat of House Lannister and capital of the westerlands, carved out of a colossal stone hill above the harbor of Lannisport and the Sunset Sea. The Rock runs two leagues from west to east, and its peak stands some two thousand one hundred feet, three times the height of the Wall. Seen from the water at dusk it has the shape of a lion in repose.
Within the Rock
Almost the whole of the stronghold lies inside the stone: halls and barracks, stables and storerooms, dungeons, a sept, and hundreds of mineshafts sunk into the dark, with only the maesters' watchtower standing under open sky. The Lion's Mouth, a natural cavern two hundred feet high on the south face, is the main gate, and the stair that climbs to it is wide enough for twenty riders abreast. Sea gates beneath the west face admit galleys to wharves under the mountain.
Lann the Clever
The Rock is named for the Casterlys, First Men who found gold in it and fortified the entrance, and the Lannisters trace their claim to Lann the Clever, who tricked them out of their own castle. The Kings of the Rock ruled the west from these halls until Loren the Last bent the knee after the Field of Fire. It has never fallen: when Dalton Greyjoy sacked Lannisport, Lady Johanna barred the gates and the ironborn could do nothing but look at them.