A Swiss Federal Institute of Technology student known as Manifold has unveiled a massive geographical reconstruction project for Minecraft, converting the entirety of Switzerland into a game map at a 1:1 scale. The project utilizes official topographic databases from the Swiss national mapping agency, with each block representing one meter in reality, accurately rendering mountains, passes, and glaciers at their original scale.
Switzerland's highest peak, the Dufourspitze, stands at a real-world elevation of 4,634 meters, which translates to a height of 4,634 blocks in the map. The vanilla game world only supports a vertical range from Y=-64 to Y=319, insufficient for such terrain. To overcome this, the creator used the Cubic Chunks mod to remove the vertical coordinate limits.
The entire reconstructed area covers 41,285 square kilometers. The installation archive is approximately 24GB, and you'll need at least 60GB of free space for extraction and stable operation. The terrain was imported in bulk via scripts, but manual fixes are still required to address geometric flaws in rock faces, coastlines, and border areas. This project demonstrates the realistic scale achievable by combining surveying data, modding technology, and sandbox building.
Currently, a free public demo covering approximately 2,400 square kilometers of the Jungfrau-Aletsch region is available. The full version of Switzerland is temporarily restricted from free distribution due to legal issues concerning map data licensing.