How to find an ancient city in Minecraft

The ancient city holds many secrets and valuable loot hidden within its walls, and though finding it might seem complicated, it became much easier once I learned where to look! Here's how to find an ancient city in Minecraft and unveil its secrets.

Where to find an Ancient City in Minecraft 1.20

You can only find the ancient city in the deep dark biome in Minecraft 1.20, buried underground at a Y-coordinate of -51, slightly above lava level. To reach these depths, you must equip yourself with the most durable digging tools and plenty of torches to avoid losing your way. Once you start running into sculk blocks, you'll know you've reached the deep dark biome.

Once there, finding an ancient city should be relatively easy since it's the only man-made structure found within this realm. Though it might seem empty at first glance, don't drop your guard yet: once you step on sculk shriekers, you'll summon the warden. Although blind, they can send powerful sonic boom attacks that always find their target. Once you defeat the warden, the treasure is yours!

Related: How to find an Allay in Minecraft (and how to use them)

How to use a cheat to find an Ancient City

If manually locating the ancient city in Minecraft 1.20 within the deep dark biome is too tricky, you can always use a quick cheat to find the spot. Just use the /locate command to be given the city's location. Specifically, you'll want to hit T, then type in /locate structure minecraft:ancient_city if you have the Java edition and /locate ancient city if you have the Bedrock edition.