Highlights
- Minecraft players are constantly pushing the boundaries of the game, as seen in one player's achievement of digging a massive hole all the way down to an ancient city.
- The Caves and Cliffs update expanded Minecraft's underground world, allowing for larger cave networks and the discovery of rare structures like ancient cities.
- Digging massive holes is sometimes necessary for players looking to build specific structures or farms, and the game continues to receive new content updates to keep players engaged.
Massively ambitious construction or excavation projects are nothing new for Minecraft fans, but an impressive feat achieved by one player involves them digging a massive hole all the way down to the remnants of an ancient city. Digging huge holes in the ground is done surprisingly often by Minecraft players, sometimes to gather large quantities of resources and other times to lay the foundation for some grand build.
Though players have been manipulating their Minecraft worlds in extreme ways ever since the game was still in alpha, countless content updates for the game over the years have opened up new mechanics, features, and possibilities for fans to toy with. The two-part update known as the Caves and Cliffs update totally overhauled the game's cave systems, not only updating terrain generation to produce much larger cave networks but also greatly increasing the world height and depth limits. These changes quite literally make Minecraft worlds far deeper than they were before, adding a whole new layer to the underground which is composed of a unique type of stone. These depths also include new subterranean biomes, one of which can contain a rare and terrifying structure known as an ancient city.
Where strongholds and abandoned mineshafts previously presented the rarest of underground structures in Minecraft, these ancient cities can only be found in specific locations and are still shrouded in mystery more than a year after their addition to the game. The discovery of one of these ancient cities, found by a player known as andrewp31894 on Reddit, encouraged them to begin an extensive excavation project which involved them digging an impressive 62x62-block hole from the surface all the way down to this ancient structure. According to the player, this took them around two weeks of off-and-on playtime and involved the manual removal of roughly 380,000 blocks using nothing more than a few Netherite pickaxes.
While pouring in countless hours just to dig a massive hole may not be some players' idea of fun, doing so often proves necessary for those looking to build certain mob farms or mega bases - a predicament that has even led one fan to fully automate this process in Minecraft. The ancient cities themselves have added a lot for explorative players to discover, including the Warden mob which brings a previously-unseen aspect of horror to Minecraft.
Mojang continues to bring new content to Minecraft through content updates that are typically delivered on an annual basis. The most recent Trails and Tales update brings plenty of new features to the game for both builders and explorers to enjoy, introducing several new mobs, building blocks, structures, and more to the sandbox game.
Minecraft is available on mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and most legacy platforms.
