What is the whole story behind Minas Morgul, Gondor, and Mordor?

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

"The Eye" is more like a metaphor for Sauron's current form by the time of LotR, where he is not really corporeal in the strict sense, and he is more like a "presence" which has certain attributes

Ai, Legate, the world must be coming to end if even you have fallen for this movie-meme! From the mouth of an eye-witness (no pun intended):

Originally Posted by LotR Book IV, The Black Gate is Closed

'He has only four [fingers] on the Black Hand, but they are enough', said Gollum shuddering.

If he had a hand, with the finger Isildur cut off still missing, I dare say he must have had a body.

Originally Posted by the above

now I must confess that I am rather uncertain, I don't know whether there is any mention of the "Eye" prior to these late-third-Age events, resp. after Sauron's return to Mordor...).

Yes, there is:

Originally Posted by The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power...

There now he brooded in the dark, until he had wrought for himself a new shape; and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed for ever when he was cast into the abyss at the drowning of Númenor. He took up again the Great Ring and clothed himself in power; and the malice of the Eye of Sauron few even of the great among Elves and Men could endure.

(referring to the end of the Second Age)