Concept art can be a big source of inspiration for LEGO builders, and Aliencat! took “being inspired by concept art” to a new level with The Ancient Gate of Qarava. Not only is this city massively large, but it’s also full of textures and interesting angles!

The ancient, pre-medieval look of this creation combines with the towering portal to create a very interesting visual story. I’m assuming it’s a portal based on the concept art, but part of me wants to see a waterfall in a world where gravity operates vertically!

Besides the textures and details on the buildings, Aliencat! also built a variety of cute little ships, making full use of SNOT (studs-not-on-top) techniques.

The LEGO creation was inspired by this piece of concept art by Gabriele Pala, and you can see how Aliencat! took lots of cues from the art, while still making the final build completely their own.

Now that we’ve seen a little about the outside, let’s take a trip inside the Ancient Gate! Aliencat! took lots of WIP pictures of the building process, and was kind enough to share some with BrickNerd.

As you can see, the build started from the ground up, with a sturdy base and a fascinating combination of angles for the layout.

Next up, the town around the base took shape.

Then defying gravity, water starts to flow upwards with a Technic frame.

Whatever its mysteries, The Ancient Gate of Qarava is proof that everything has its good side. Aliencat! says, “It always seemed like an overly ambitious project, but then this pandemic happened and I spent the past year finally building it :)”

Did the insides of this MOC look like what you expected them to? How would you build vertical water? Let us know in the comments!

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