The Great Lift at Mzinchaleft is an ancient Dwemer elevator just south of the ruins of Mzinchaleft, running straight down to the vast underground cavern of Blackreach. When you first find it, the iron gate is shut tight and there is no lever on your side. Dwemer engineering: brilliant, but with no interest in visitors.
What you’ll find
- A locked iron gate that can only be opened from the inside.
- A mechanical lift cage connecting the surface to Blackreach, with a lever by the gate that only works once you have come up from below.
- Once unlocked, a separate marker on your world map – handy as a fast travel point straight to the Blackreach shortcut.
Quests
To use the lift you first need access to Blackreach, and that requires Discerning the Transmundane. Septimus Signus gives you an Attunement Sphere that opens the way into Blackreach through the ruins of Raldbthar, Mzinchaleft or Alftand. Once you are down there, ride this lift up, pull the lever beside the gate, and from then on you can enter from the outside.
Tips
The quickest plan: work through Mzinchaleft into Blackreach once, explore, then head for the Mzinchaleft lift and ride it up to unlock the gate. After that, coming back is a matter of fast travelling here and taking the elevator down. Blackreach has similar lifts at the Great Lift at Raldbthar and the Great Lift at Alftand.
Save manually before you step into the lift. It has a reputation for occasionally trapping players in a loop of arrivals and departures that can eat your autosaves, and an independent save is much cheaper than therapy.
Good to know
The gate is not always loyal. Players report it closing again after being opened, which means taking the long way through Mzinchaleft to reach Blackreach and unlock it once more.
Nearby
Closest places covered on TamrielSaga: Mzinchaleft, Frostmere Crypt, Dimhollow Crypt, Red Road Pass, Hall of the Vigilant.
Location data (hold, map position, editor ID) read from the Skyrim game files; details checked against community wiki articles and summarised in our own words.