Located in the middle of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan lies a burning crater with a diameter of 70 metres and depth of 20 metres: The Door to Hell – noted for its natural gas fire.
The history behind this crater starts in 1971, whereby Russian scientists thought it was a great oil field site. Pleased with finding gas resources they started to store the gas. However, the ground collapsed; creating the crater seen above – releasing methane gas. Fearing the release of poisonous gases the scientists decided to burn it off. Expectations were that the gas would burn off in a couple of days, however its still burning after four decades.
The name of the crater isn’t too hard to understand its origins, it really does look like the opening of hell. A man-made one at that – and a wonder of the world in my eyes.
Here are a few more pictures to ‘tickle your fancy’.
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the world is mysterious 