The Earth's Gate To Hell Literally Burning Continously For Half A Century

There is a place on earth that has been burning for decades now. Gate to Hell or Door To Hell as it is popularly known is blazing in the desert in Turkmenistan.

Located in the Karakum Desert of central Turkmenistan approximately 150 miles from the country's capital, the Gate to Hell attracts hundreds of tourists each year. In addition, it also entices nearby desert wildlife reportedly. Repeatedly, local spiders are seen diving into the pit by the thousands, attracted to their deaths by the radiant flames.

History of the Gate To Hell

In 1971, when Turkmenistan was still part of the Soviet Union, a group of Soviet geologists went to the Karakum to look for oil fields. They found what they thought to be a substantial oil field and began drilling. Regrettably, for the scientists, they were drilling on top of a hollow pocket of natural gas, which could not support the weight of their equipment. Smithsonianmag notes that the site shrunk, pulling their equipment along with it and the event prompted the brittle sedimentary rock of the desert to collapse in other places too. This created a domino effect that caused in several open craters.

The natural gas then escaped from the crater displacing oxygen in the atmosphere, soon animals started dying. In addition, the escaping methane posed dangers due to its flammability. The scientists decided to use flaring or in layman's term, they light the crater on fire, hoping that all the dangerous natural gas would burn away in a few weeks' time. According to Daily Mail, the supposedly few-week burn has turned into almost a half-century-long desert bonfire, thus, it became popular as the gate to hell.

In 2010, Turkmenistan's president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, in distress that the fire would impend the country's ability to develop nearby gas fields, ordered local authorities to come up with a plan to put the fire off the gate of hell. However, no action has been taken, and the crater continues to burn, attracting unsuspecting wildlife and international tourists.

To visit the Darvaza gas crater or the gate of hell, it is best to go at night, when the fire can be seen even from a distance. Tours can also be booked through agents in Ashgabat.