Discussing the Elephant(-sized portal) in the Room

I have awoken. A sculk shrieker finally summoned me out of bed. 

Hello everyONE (because I have one reader). Now that there is stuff to rant about again (more than enough I may add!) I have returned. This time to discuss something that has EVERYONE stoked. Something that has gotten everyone talking lately. The ancient cities sure are a doozy - although I have yet to play them in survival - but there is one central aspect that EVERYBODY is talking about. For those who don't know, in the centre of Ancient Cities, there is a very large statue that looks like the head of a Warden in shape. Where the mouth is, there is a very mysterious new block - Reinforced Deepslate.

This block is SUPER mysterious and unlike any other block in Minecraft. It exists ONLY to line the "mouth" of this Warden statue. But what is even more peculiar, if broken it can't be obtained in survival. Even with Silk Touch. Very few blocks have this property. Monster Spawners and Budding Amethyst come to mind, to prevent people moving or farming these resources too easily, but THIS? What looks to be just a building block? What gives? Why can't we get this (awesome-looking) block in Survival?! What is even MORE strange is that this block CAN be moved by a piston - although it has been hinted that this is a bug. After all, this is only the very first iteration of the ancient city.

What actually gives with this block?! And why, in its sole area of existence within the game is it suspiciously shaped like a.....

PORTAL!?!?!?!??!!?!

A PORTAL!?!

There has not been a new portal added to Minecraft in 7 years. Portals have almost always existed in Minecraft, but there have been extremely few examples of them. In fact, there are really only four portals that I can think of: Nether Portals, End Portals, End Gateways, and the portal that takes you back to the Overworld once you beat the Ender Dragon. The End Gateway was the last portal to be added.

From what I understand, the Ancient Cities were heavily influenced by Kingbdogz, who created the most infamous portal in the Minecraft-verse: the glowstone and water portal. Over 10 years later, he has, for the second time, sent the community into a tailspin over a portal. EVERYONE is talking about this portal. In part because there hasn't been a new portal in so long, and because the addition of new portals is so rare. But also..... if this thing IS a portal, WHERE DOES IT LEAD?!

Currently, we KNOW it leads nowhere. By now, if there was even the most hidden way this portal could be activated, or there was any hint to what this does in the code, someone WOULD have found it by now. This "portal" cannot be activated currently.

So.... is this thing even a portal?!

In Slicedlime's snapshot video for the 1.19 experimental snapshot 1, at the 5:55 mark, he explicitly shapes that the reinforced deepslate makes a "portal-like shape".  He could've said it looked like the Warden's mouth. He could've just said it was a rectangle. But no. He actually used the P-word. Also, "portal-like shape" - there isn't any other portal in the game that has THIS shape or even close. ANY rectangular structure could be described as a portal shape - so why was this particular rectangle described as a PORTAL?

But perhaps an even more direct reference to this thing being, in fact, a portal, is found within the files for the ancient city structure. There is a component that appears to be a scaled-down version of the city's centrepiece, and it is named... small_portal_statue.

Whoa mama. Within the game's files themselves, there is a reference to this thing being a portal.

Where Could This Portal Lead?

It is not often there is a feature like this that sends the community going absolutely nuts. This is probably the most hype I've seen for a mysterious feature since Bluestone. Bluestone unfortunately turned out to be an animation error and nothing more, but many people in the community were still willing to cling into hope that this single frame of blue redstone in a 1.14 trailer meant that 1.15 was confirmed to be the Cobalt update. Will this portal end up being just another time the community chased their tail over nothing, or will this portal someday be lightable? For this question, only time will tell. Maybe a lot of time. But all signs seem to point to this thing being a portal that may or may not someday be lightable.

But if it was someday lightable, where would it lead?

I have a few theories.

My least favourite theory is that it would simply lead to another portal in another Ancient City, and would serve as a means to instantly travel thousands of blocks. I don't like this theory, and I hope this isn't what they go for. A huge part of Minecraft is exploration, and having a quick and "easy" (debatable) way to travel over 10,000 blocks that isn't Nether travel just seems like it would spit in the face of the exploration aspect of the game.

A less-likely but awesome theory would be that it would take us to one of the random dimensions we saw in the 2020 April Fool snapshot. That April Fool snapshot actually served as somewhat of a tech test for an actual feature that came into fruition several snapshots later in the 1.16 cycle - SUPPORT for custom dimensions. But some of those dimensions were so incredible yet wacky, I can't help but wish at least ONE of them was added. Or a few of them. But really? What sense does it make that the ancient city leads to some random crazy wacko dimension? As much as I would LOVE this to be the case, and I would LOVE to see some random wacko dimension of craziness in Minecraft, I don't think they would go with this. This may be a little TOO out there.

An obvious thought would be some sort of sculk dimension, but to be honest, I think this could be kinda boring. What would be the point of it? The Deep Dark is already full of sculk.

Would this portal even lead us to a new dimension? Minecraft devs have always stated there won't be any new dimensions being added until the 3 we have have been overhauled. The End hasn't had an overhaul since 2015. I HIGHLY doubt this portal would lead us to the End, or anywhere in the End.

But with Mojang, who knows? Maybe 1.20 will be adding some crazy new dimension, or this portal could remain unlightable until 2030. We just don't know at this point, so anything here is pure speculation. But I have to say, I haven't been this hyped for a potential new feature since there was talk of the world height being increased.

Please Mojang, please let this be something really incredible and not added to the list of tales where the community lost their mind over nothing.