Thanks to the Facebook Waterdeep: Dragon Heist DM's page I was brought into contact with the author of quite a bit of the Lore of Waterdeep - Ed Greenwood. He provided me with this post.
"Ed Greenwood Hi, Mike. Right now, I’m at work updating and detailing a particular ward of the city, building by building, but given my workload, it’s going to take me years. So don’t wait for me. ;} Yes, the published maps are wildly inaccurate, often because someone went ahead without checking with me/the established lore. Your 2 miles north-to-south measurement is a teensy bit under the real dimensions, but close enough. And the walls have been rebuilt higher over the years, so what’s below refers to “now” in 5e Realmslore, a few years shy of 1500 DR.
Here are some of the heights you need:
Mount Waterdeep: The peak is 700 feet above sea level. Yes, the mountain does rise in a ridiculously abrupt pinnacle that stands as a shield between the central wards of the city and the sea. It’s part of why the city was built at this site, and flourished (the natural deepwater harbor in its lee was the other). Very steep on seaward side, falls away SLIGHTLY more gradually on the landward side.
Peaktop Eyrie (the “flight deck” of the griffon-riders’ cavern base): bedrock floor is 240 feet above sea level, and 160 above the interior courtyard of Piergeiron’s Palace. Eyrie Tower rises 66 feet from that bedrock floor, but the riders’ “ready shed” beside it is a single-storey building with a roofpeak thirty feet above the bedrock floor.
Castle Waterdeep: tallest point is the pinnacle of Wizards Tower, which is 280 feet high
[ground floor is 40 feet high, second floor/”Level 2” is 30 feet high, chapel floor/”Level 3” is 30 feet high. Level 4 is 30 feet high, upper levels 15 feet high each] but the whole thing is built atop a spur of Mount Waterdeep that rises 40 feet above the surrounding streets.
Piergeiron’s Palace: the two largest towers soar 90 feet above ground level, the other towers and central block rise 70 feet above ground level, and the walls rise 55 feet from ground level.
Mountain Tower: 70 feet high, but standing upslope of the Palace, on bedrock 20 feet taller than ground level at the Palace, and so rises as high as the two tallest Palace towers.
Mount Wall (seawall, or western city exterior wall): 40 feet high (but built atop the irregular rising rocks of Mount Waterdeep; the lowest of which, under the wall, is 40 feet above high-tide sea level; most are twice that).
Mount Wall towers: 65 feet high (but built atop the irregular rising rocks of Mount Waterdeep; the lowest of which, under the wall, is 40 feet above high-tide sea level; most are twice that)
The Watching Tower: 120 feet tall, but built atop the rocks of Mount Waterdeep at a height 60 feet above high-tide sea level.
Harborwatch Tower: All towers are 80 feet tall, walls 60 feet high, and built atop the rocks of Mount Waterdeep at a height 40 feet above high-tide sea level.
Seawall (walls between Harborwatch and the Sea Chain Gatetowers, and those Gatetowers and Smugglers’ Bane Tower, and Smugglers’ Bane and the Stormfort and its towers): 80 feet above high-tide sea level.
Sea Chain Gatetowers: 100 feet above high-tide sea level.
Smugglers’ Bane Tower: walls 60 feet high, towers 80 feet high, but built atop Stormhaven Isle’s bedrock at a height of 50 feet above high-tide sea level.
Naval Wall (interior harbor seawall): 60 feet above high-tide sea level.
Stormfort Towers: 100 feet above high-tide sea level.
Stormfort: All towers are 80 feet tall, walls 60 feet high, and built atop bedrock that’s 36 feet above high-tide sea level.
Deepwater Wall: all towers are 60 feet tall, walls 40 feet tall, built atop bedrock that was quarry-leveled to a height 30 feet above high-tide sea level.
Harbor Chain Run (walls connecting to the Harbor Chain Gatetowers): 60 feet above high-tide sea level.
Harbor Chain Gatetowers: 90 feet above high-tide sea level.
Inner Keep (formerly “Inner Fort”): Two brown-roofed towers are 80 feet tall, other towers are 70 feet, fortified block buildings 50 feet high, all built atop bedrock 45 feet above high-tide sea level except NW extension, which “climbs down” the slope to be 20 feet above high-tide sea level at lowest point.
Great Harbor Gate (walls and towers between, and connected to, the Inner Keep and the East Torchtower): walls 80 feet above high-tide sea level, towers 100 feet 80 feet above high-tide sea level.
East Torchtower: 120 feet tall, but built on bedrock that is 40 feet above high-tide sea level.
Southpost: walls (from East Torchtower) 60 feet high and built on bedrock that’s 40 feet above high-tide sea level.
Merchant Wall: walls 60 feet high, walltowers 80 feet high (but all are built atop a 20-foot high talus/batter). This includes the larger walltowers connecting to the City of the Dead walls.
Southfort Keep: keep towers 100 feet high, block 60 feet high.
Southgate: 60 feet high.
Trollwall: (including between East Torchtower and Southgate): walls 40 feet high, walltowers 60 feet high. From Coachlamp Lane proceeding north, the land under the wall rises, forming a cliff from where the Merchant Wall ends north as far as Endcliff Fort; the height of this cliff varies from about 20 feet to approximately eighty feet from Caravan Court northwards.
River Gate: 90 feet tall.
City of the Dead city-facing walltowers: 32 feet high.
City of the Dead “interior” [facing into the city] walls: 22 feet high.
Tarser’s Tower (hexagonal tower at the south end of the North Trollwall): rises 90 feet from the level of the adjacent city streets).
Farwatch Tower: 110 feet high.
Coldwatch Wall (inner north city wall, connecting Farwatch Tower, the Upper Towers, and Trolltower): walls 60 feet high, walltowers 75 feet high, and the wall stands on the edge of a natural slope; the ground falls away to the north, in what is now Field Ward, about forty feet to the North Trollwall.
Upper Towers: 85 feet tall.
Armory Tower: 75 feet high.
Trolltower: 100 feet high, but built on bedrock that’s 30 feet above high-tide sea level.
Trollfort: towers and upper roof of block 120 feet high (ground level is about 30 feet above high-tide sea level).
North Trollwall (exterior city wall connecting to the Trollfort and Endcliff Fort, and now with a wall south from there to the walltower immediately southeast of Farwatch Tower, enclosing Field Ward, then running south along the cliff-face to Tarser’s Tower): walltowers 80 feet high, walls 50 feet high.
Northgate: 120 feet tall. Outside Northgate, the ground falls away about 60 feet as one moves north or northeast.
Stormtower (city wall tower west of the Trollfort): 100 feet high, but built on bedrock that’s 30 feet above high-tide sea level.
West Wall/Seawall (Mount Wall north of Mount Waterdeep): walls 60 feet above high-tide sea level, walltowers 80 feet above high-tide sea level, built on bedrock that’s 16 feet above high-tide sea level.
Seaeye Tower/“Gull Tower” (the rectangular jail/barracks/armory walltower just north of Gull Leap): 100 feet high, but built on bedrock that’s 16 feet above high-tide sea level.
West Gate: gatehouse 60 feet high (portcullis maw 40 feet tall), flanking towers 90 feet high, all built on bedrock that’s 16 feet above high-tide sea level. "
So PSYCHED!!! Thank you sir for providing me with all of this information, it will be invaluable to more accurately reflect the architecture of Waterdeep!
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