After reigning many years and growing to the most powerful king in the history of Numenor, Pharazon sailed his vast armada to the shores of Middle Earth and marched his army to the very gate of Sauron's tower of Barad-Dur, and demanded that the Dark Lord come forth and pay him homage.
And Sauron came. And pledged his allegiance to Pharazon. And promised to return with him as a hostage to Numenor. For a time . . .
In Numenor, Sauron soon became the counselor of Pharazon, and turned the King and his people to evil. The Numenoreans chose to turn their backs on the gods, and turned instead to fires, and to sacrifice, and to the worship of the Dark One.
As the years passed, Pharazon began to fear the shadow of death. But Sauron whispered to him, and told Pharazon that if he sailed to the land of the immortal gods, and took their land as his own, then he too would live an immortal life. And why should the Son of Light not take that which was his own by right?
And so Pharazon raised the greatest army that the world had known, and set sail into the West to assail the very home of the gods. And Sauron sat in his temple in Numenor and laughed at the folly of his would-be captor.
So Pharazon's fleet sailed to the shores of Valinor, and his army marched onto its holy shores. And Pharazon was carried ashore on his golden throne, and claimed the land as his own. But the gods lay down their stewardship of the world, and called upon The One to prevent this desecration.
And so The One changed the world, and brought down the mountains upon Pharazon and his army. And He opened up the sea, which swallowed the land of Numenor beneath her waves, and much great beauty and knowledge was lost. And He bent the world so that men could no longer sail to the land of the gods, since the sea now bent beneath them and would no longer take them into the true West.
But some of the faithful men of Numenor were spared, and sailed their ships to the shores of Middle Earth, and founded great Kingdoms. But Sauron, too, survived, and made his way back to Barad-Dur where he again took up his Ring and sought to dominate the heirs of Numenor throughout the later ages.