Turkmenistan wants to close ‘the gate to hell’ – a burning crater that has been burning there for half a century. It concerns the Darvaza crater, which is located in the Karakum desert and has since become a tourist attraction.
Why does the Central Asian republic suddenly want to close its tourist attraction after half a century? President Berdymoukhamedov believes the flames and gas produced are negatively impacting the environment and the health of people living nearby, he said in a televised address. He then ordered the competent authorities to find a way to extinguish ‘the gate to hell’.
The origins of the burning crater go back to 1971, when geologists from the former Soviet Union were looking for gas when they found a huge underground space. However, the ‘cave’ collapsed, creating a huge crater about seventy meters wide and twenty meters deep. To prevent the spread of poisonous gases, scientists set fire to the crater in the hopes that the fire would be extinguished quickly.
Half a century later, the gate to hell, which by the way emits a pungent sulfur smell, is still very much alive and has become a tourist attraction.
In 2010, the president of Turkmenistan already announced that he would close the crater. More than ten years later, that still hasn’t happened.
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