[Gurthang]

Well, didn't Sauron have green fields and fair farms in the Eastern parts of his land? Around the Sea of Nurn? He did have to feed his armies after all. Which would make it seem that Mordor is not so bad a land at that, except for the fact of Mount Doom and it's ash ridden wastes. I would chance that, before Sauron came, there were Dwarves in some of those hills. But what became of their strongholds? What would their caverns become? If they had been made with the skill such as Moria was, perhaps they remain hidden still.