could any of the kingdoms at middle earth attack the southern continents?

[tom the eldest]

Originally Posted by Belegorn

Probably. I do wonder if their sailors had ever penetrated these boundaries before.

The numenorians probably have,either when they are exploring,or trying to find aman.

[Belegorn]

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

The numenorians probably have,either when they are exploring,or trying to find aman.

The Númenóreans knew where Aman was, but they were forbidden to sail there. They could sail west but not so far as to lose sight of the land of Númenor. They could, however, see Avallónë which is a city on Tol Eressëa "easternmost of the Undying Lands." [Sil., Akallabêth, p. 324] All I know is that they did sail:

"ever eastward and not westward, from the darkness of the North to the heats of the South, and beyond the South to the Nether Darkness; and they came even into the inner seas, and sailed about Middle-earth"

[tom the eldest]

I mean when they try to find the remnant of numenor island.sorry.

[cellurdur]

The Numenoreans had pretty much colonised a lot of the world by the time they fell. When Sauron was taken in, I get the impression that apart from the West most of the world was under their power.

[tom the eldest]

So great is their power that no armies of middle earth or southern continent that can fight them.how do they achive such might?i mean they were always the game changer.

[mhagain]

Harad is huge.

Going by the latitudes given in Letter 294, the region marked "Far Harad" on the LotR maps is actually just at the latitude of Tunisia; i.e "Far Harad" is just North Africa!

This must be a hypothetical "furthest south" from the perspective of a northern map-maker.

In order to get beyond Harad to the actual Southern Continent, and assuming climate and vegetation are imagined as being similar to ours, you'd have to cross multiple climate zones, deserts, jungles, rainforests, plains, etc. You'd be dealing with strange tropical diseases, wild animals, hostile natives, etc all the way, and next week you'd have a whole new set of them to deal with.

Of course you could sail there. Aside from Ambarkanta map V we don't have much idea of the geography beyond Umbar/Tunisia, but assuming it's navigable (and that Third Age shipbuilding is up to the standards of the Numenoreans, which it probably isn't) you'd still need to come ashore for fresh water and food. A smaller expeditionary force could probably carry enough to last the journey, a conquering army almost certainly couldn't.

And all of this is just to get by Harad; we haven't even gotten to the Southern Continent yet.

Europeans didn't conquer Africa until comparatively modern times, and there are good reasons why. Likewise the Numenoreans - who had the greatest mariners, the strongest armies - never conquered either Harad or the Southern Continent. People from the Third or Fourth Age wouldn't be able to either (people from the Sixth or Seventh Age probably would, though ).