It’s easy to say you’d love to to really visit Middle-earth. It’s a wondrous place full of natural beauty and amazing architecture. But you know what else it has? Darkness. And orcs. And a whole lot of warfare. Whose to say you’d even survive a day there let alone an entire vacation? Fortunately there are plenty of ways to safely wander through J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world. You can read his books or watch Peter Jackson’s films. Or you can explore Middle-earth via the most popular video game ever, because The Lord of the Rings fans have spent years building it in Minecraft.
Minecraft Middle Earth began its massive undertaking way back in October 2010. It’s now “one of the longest running Minecraft building communities” going. It’s also one of our favorites. Its members have spent years building, virtual brick by virtual brick, Tolkien’s fantasy land on a gigantic map. It measures 29,000 by 30,000 blocks. That’s equivalent in size to Dallas, Texas.
With all that space, time, and energy, members have meticulously recreated the different locales and signature spots of the fantasy realm, capturing both Middle-earths natural beauty and man/elf/dwarf-made wonders.
Those digital recreation includes replicas of iconic Minecraft Lord of the Rings spots both big and small like Minas Tirith, Dol Amroth, Osgiliath, Isengard, Rohan, Moria, Rivendell, Lothlorien, Helm’s Deep and more.
And by “more” we mean more than we can count, including places that are barely mentioned in the books.
Remember how we said you might not want to actually visit Middle-earth cause of all the war and death? Well with Minecraft Middle Earth you actually can just walk into Mordor. It really is that simple.
Minecraft Middle Earth has been around a long time, but it’s better than ever. Creators can now make more detailed buildings, both inside and out, than they could when this project began. But even after all this time there’s still more of Tolkien’s world left to build.
And so long as they keep building it we’ll keep coming back. It might be a digital way to visit Middle-earth, but it’s still the safest way to travel there.