Tolkien stated many times that Arda was our world in a fictional time, so we can interpret the known regions of Middle-earth as Europe, perhaps specifically the Mediterranean (Mediterraneus is Latin for "Middle-earth"). Tolkien stated that The Shire was situated at roughly the same latitude as the Midlands of England, while Minas Tirith in Gondor was at the same latitude of Florence, putting Mount Doom and Mordor in the general region of Asia Minor. However, the entire continent of Middle-earth extends beyond the regions known to Gondor, far into the uncharted East and South, and Middle-earth probably encompassed all of what later became Eurasia.