Minecraft: All of Denmark virtually recreated

Copenhagen's Church of Our Lady, as recreated in game

And how it looks in real life

The whole of Denmark has been recreated, to scale, within the virtual world of Minecraft.

The whole country has been faithfully reproduced in the hugely popular title's building-block style by the Danish government.

Danish residents are urged to "freely move around in Denmark" and "find your own residential area, to build and tear down".

Around 50 million copies of Minecraft have been sold worldwide.

Known as a "sandbox" game, the title allows players to exist in a virtual world, using building blocks to create everything from basic structures to entire worlds.

Minecraft was launched in 2011 by independent Swedish developer Markus "Notch" Persson.

The Danish government said the maps were created to be used as an educational tool - suggesting "virtual field trips" to hard-to-reach parts of the country.

Flat roofs

There are no specific goals to achieve other than continued survival.

Recreating real-world locations is of particular interest for many players.

Last year an intern working with the UK's Ordnance Survey team built geographically accurate landscapes covering 86,000 sq miles (224,000 sq km) of Britain.

The Danish project is more ambitious however, with buildings and towns reproduced in more detail.

The only difference, the team behind it said, was that all roofs were flat.

It has also banned the use of one of the game's typical tools - dynamite.

The full map download of Denmark will be available until 23 October.