The Door to Hell

Do you want to visit hell? If yes, you’re in luck! About 260 km north of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan you can find a 70 m diameter, 30 m deep crater of fire. In 1971 Soviet geologists accidentally created a deep sinkhole while drilling over a natural gas pocket, much of the equipment was swallowed up when the cavern collapsed and is still somewhat visible today. The basin started leaking methane into the atmosphere, so in order to prevent the air around it becoming unbreathable and creating a highly explosive area, the geologists set the pit on fire, believing that it would extinguish in four weeks. Four decades later angry flames still leap up into the sky. Sorry to disappoint you if you thought that the devil ordered a team of demons to make a pathway from earth to his home.

Surprisingly, there have been some creatures spotted in the sinkhole, especially worms which some believe are the devil’s servants. In 2013 a Canadian explorer, George Kourounis tested his luck by venturing to the floor of the crater to get rock samples. These samples were later tested, and we now definitely know that life exists at the bottom of the pit in the form of bacteria.

The site is now a state nature reserve and a bustling tourist attraction. People from all over the globe come to visit during the night-time when the eerie glow can be seen from kilometres away. Though they should have a strong stomach, the ground, containing hydrogen sulphide, causes a disgusting eggy smell to loiter in the air. Some people might think of using the pit to advance the date of someone’s trip to the afterlife, but “unfortunately” for them, a security barrier was erected in 2018. I guess they’ll just have to stick to Yellowstone’s Zone of Death. The flames are fed by the natural gas underground and the fire will continue to burn until the gas is completely combusted, scientists have no idea when that will happen. This means that the fire could go out tomorrow or burn for another 40 years, nobody knows, except the devil himself…