Darvaza Gas Crater

The Door to Hell also known as the Gate of Hell is a manmade crater which is burning off the methane gas which is escaping form the reservoir below the surface. It is 169 miles (167.5 km) north of the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat close to the small village of Derweze in the Karakum Desert.

The crater is not a natural feature of the landscape, but its origins are unclear although it is widely believed to have been the result of an accident in 1971 when Soviet geologists prospecting in the area for natural gas caused the cap of the gas reservoir to collapse.

The collapse allowed poisonous methane gas to escape which could have resulted in an environmental disaster and to prevent this from happening the geologists set the gas alight and the gas has been burning ever since. The burning gas generates an orange glow in the desert during the hours of darkness.

In January 2022 it was reported that the President of Turkmenistan had order the fire be extinguished to prevent the squandering of a valuable natural resource.