the Eriadorian Coast
In the Elder Days, Cardolan had been covered by the Taur-iaur-in Enyd, the primordial forest that then spread over all of southern Eriador and beyond.By then the Eriadorian coastal plain extended considerably farther to the south and west to become the southernmost extension of ancient Beleriand. When these lands sank beneath the ocean at the end of the Elder Days, all that was left of this mysterious, magic haunted region were the Rast Vorn (S."Dark Cape"), the Eryn Vorn(S. "Dark Wood"), the Old Forest on the middle Baranduin, and the less enchanted woods that still spread over most of Minhiriath .The great forests of Minhiriath were destroyed during the Eriadorian-Númenorean wars of the mid-Second Age, and the subsequent erosion turned the land into much blacker silvan woodland and moors. The most fertile areas of Cardolan in later years were those that were regularly renewed by the annual flooding of its great rivers, and it is there that most of the population came to live.