The Gates of Hell
Fiery crater that has been burning for 38 years
Photo taken by, and published with the permission of John H. Bradley
Source www.johnhbradley.com Click to Enlarge
Category Natural Wonders, Fiery Wonders, Geological Oddities, Intriguing Environs, Disaster Areas
In the hot, expansive Karakum desert in Turkmenistan, near the 350 person village of Derweze, is a hole 328 feet wide that has been on fire, continuously, for 38 years. Known as the Darvaza Gas Crater or the "Gates of Hells" by locals, the crater can be seen glowing for miles around.
The hole is the outcome not of nature but of an industrial accident. In 1971 a Soviet drilling rig accidentally punched into a massive underground natural gas cavern, causing the ground to collapse and the entire drilling rig to fall in. Having punctured a pocket of gas, poisonous fumes began leaking from the hole at an alarming rate. To head off a potential environmental catastrophe, the Soviets set the hole alight. The crater hasn't stopped burning since.
Though little information is available about the fate of the Soviet drilling rig, presumably it is still down there somewhere, on the other side of the "Gates of Hell."
See an error? Know more? Edit this place.
- Website http://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/Turkmenistan/
- Address Derweze, Turkmenistan
Stan tours gives camel and camping tours to the remote hole. http://www.stantours.com/tm_rg_ahal_do.html
Comments
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Anonymous
March 11, 2010
First time I have heard about it. -
Anonymous
March 4, 2010
thank you..K
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I think that more problems should be solved by lighting them on fire. Genius!
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TALK ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING, HEY! AL GORE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS, I DARE YOU.
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tsk,tsk,tsk...WILL THE GREEDY ENERGY INDUSTRIES NEVER LEARN?!? Reminds me a lot of my sentiments about the Russian ghost town of Pripyat: http://atlasobscura.com/places/chernobyls-ghost-cities
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