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human
[Lord of the Rings] Why didn't the Gondorians build any cities on Pelennor Fields?

It seems a little strange that the Gondorians would go through all the effort to build Minas Tirith into a mountain, but leave vast tracts of land with no settlements or agriculture. Sure, they have Osgiliath on the river, but there's still lots of land where there's nothing built.

There is the issue of defense, but by the time the events of LotR happen, it had been 3,000 years since Sauron was first defeated. Surely they would have cared less and at least have some settlements out there, right?

[4th wall] Or is this explained in the books and Peter Jackson was just lazy with that detail?
gpt
The Pellenor Fields isn't all that huge - maybe a 10 or 15 mile radius outside the city walls. It contained no towns or cities - which isn't surprising, since the chief city of Gondor was *right there* - but it was filled with farms and homesteads, though these were evacuated in anticipation of the siege of the city.

The Pellenor was fortified, with an encircling wall known at the Rammas Echor. In the early stages of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, Lord Denethor had his forces mount a defense of the Rammas, but he knew from the beginning that defending it was unfeasible.