Yes, the Darvaza gas crater, a natural gas field located in Turkmenistan, is also known as the Door to Hell. It is said that when the place was drilled by Soviet geologists for natural gas in 1971, the ground collapsed, leaving a huge crater. To burn off the poisonous gases escaping from the crater!, the crater was set on fire which continues to burn till today.
To head off a potential environmental catastrophe, the Soviets set the hole alight, figuring it would stop burning within a few weeks. Decades later, and the fiery pit is still going strong. The Soviet drilling rig is believed to still be down there somewhere, on the other side of the “Gates of Hell.”
Amazingly, despite the crater’s foreboding name and ever-present flames, people still trek into the desert to witness the site in all its blazing glory. The country’s government hopes it’ll become a tourist site, and the nearby desert has already become a popular place to wild camp.
Picture Credit : Google
