Where is the 'Door to Hell' located and why is it called so?
Where is the 'Door to Hell' located and why is it called so?
What if there is a ‘doorway to hell' that has been burning for almost half a century, untamed, unrelenting, and utterly blazing with streaks of fire.
Well, that is just a name, but this flaming crater has actually been burning and has attracted many scientists and travellers from around the world. Its eerie glow, visible for miles at night, seems like something out of a dystopian film, yet it’s all too real.
It started as an industrial accident and is now a place for scientific research and a massive symbol of human error and nature’s unpredictability. The Gates of Hell are more than just a geological wonder, it is also a reminder of the risks buried beneath our planet’s surface and how quickly things can spiral beyond control. Here’s how the ‘gates of Hell’ come into being and why it’s still burning more than 50 years later.
The ‘The Gates of Hell’ were opened accidentally
In 1971, Soviet engineers were drilling for natural gas in Turkmenistan’s desert when this disaster struck. Their rig punctured an underground gas reservoir, causing the ground to collapse into a deep crater roughly 230 feet wide and 100 feet deep. Methane gas immediately began leaking into the air. Scientists were then immediately concerned about a potential environmental catastrophe and the havoc it could wreck on the world, so they made a radical decision to set it on fire to burn off the toxic fumes.
An anticipated fix that never ended
The fire was only supposed to last a few days or weeks at most as the Soviet geologists believed the gas would quickly burn out. But the crater, now known as the ‘Darvaza gas crater’, has continued to burn non-stop for more than five decades. Fueled by vast underground methane stores, the fire found a supposed endless supply of fuel. Today, the inferno is still alive and burning and this has gone beyond all predictions and human intervention.
Why does the fire keep burning
The Darvaza crater sits on top of the Amu-Darya Basin, one of Central Asia’s richest natural gas fields. Methane naturally seeps through the Earth’s crust here, making the region highly combustible. Mark Ireland, a geoscience expert from Newcastle University, told National Geographic that the crater’s existence is no surprise given the geology. The continuous supply of methane makes it nearly impossible for the flames to die out, turning the crater into a long-term fixture.
The engineering blunder that turned into a tourist magnet
Despite its dangerous origins, the ‘Gates of Hell’ have become one of Turkmenistan’s most iconic attractions, drawing around 10,000 visitors annually. The glowing pit is visible from miles away, especially at night when it displays an eerie, frightening light across the desert. Travel sites like Atlas Obscura have helped spread its fame, and in 2019, the site went viral again when the country's president released a video of himself doing donuts in a rally car around the crater.
Despite attempts to close it, why is it still open?
Over the years, Turkmenistan’s leadership has discussed closing the crater due to environmental and economic concerns. In fact, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov once publicly declared intentions to extinguish the fire. Yet, the logistics of sealing off such a massive, gas-fed blaze have proven nearly impossible and quite difficult. The crater remains open and burning, and is also a powerful attraction to those drawn to the world’s most bizarre and beautiful natural phenomena.
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