The Nether



Hell is part of the Minecraft Halloween Update. Not much is known about it; only these things are sure:

• Used for fast travel (More about this in the section below).

• Much more dangerous than normal Minecraft landscapes (higher mob spawning rate, special mobs).

• The only way to get in or out of it is by using portals, players can't just mine straight down and hit hell.

Fast Travel and Portals
Notch hasn't revealed a lot about the portals yet, but he gave us a vague idea of how it works. This quote is taken from the Halloween Update announcement:

"Portal in, move ten meters, portal out, and you're hundreds of meters away."