Don't quite recall single player, when me and bcman (My brother, he hasn't been online for a year or two) started, I usually picked the side of a cave (By the water). he did a large dirt house, and later had a few paths in the top of a mountain.
As for MultiPlayer, CFUK was at the top of the server list, and gave it a try. I think it was the 2nd map I started building on (1st one had broonie's house [i], in the middle of a tiny lake). It had Mine City, but I went down by the water and built in a 6 block high hill, and expanded to build underwater. (There was a large pyramid that went as high as possible in those days as well by other members). BCMan built tower city in the same area, so eventually I did build a spleef tower (Rebuilt that a couple times on later maps, but afaik, never used it).
No pictures from that era, unfortunately. (Although I have some of my resort, competing with Frozen Peaks, a map or two after (2nd picture is the basement of the first picture)