Nether portal



The Portal is part of the October 31st Halloween Update.

It consists of a frame of Obsidian, four blocks wide, by five blocks tall.

Once the frame is constructed, the player then sets the space inside the frame on Fire.

This creates a swirly purple vortex inside the frame. When the player stands in the purple vortex for a few seconds, they are taken to The Nether. Stepping into the portal (purple blocks) will begin a teleport sequence which, after a few seconds, will transport you to the other side. You can step out of the portal before it completes to abort the teleport.

It is interesting to note that if you place two portals on top of one another you will come out of the bottom one on 'earth' and the top one in The Nether. This again references that The Nether is below the 'earth'.

When a portal is first created from the overworld to the Nether, there is no guarantee that using the reverse portal will send you back to the original portal. The reason for this is unknown, but is possibly related to placement issues (the Nether portal might have to be moved because it would otherwise be in solid rock/lava/etc.)



The portal can also be built without the corners.Seen here

Media
Here are some preparation videos and commentaries in which people craft portals according to Notch's specifications. here and here.

On 10/10/10 Notch revealed the above screenshot on his blog showing portals.

On 29 October 2010 PCGamer released this video, showing a portal being constructed and used.