Turkmenistan plans to close its 'Gateway to Hell'

Last Updated11/01/2022

Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered experts to find a way to extinguish a fire in a huge natural gas crater, the Darvaza gas crater also known as the ‘Gateway to Hell’.
Located in the Karakum desert, 260 kilometres away from Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, the crater has been burning for the last 50 years.

The crater is 69 metres wide and 30 metres deep.
While the details of the origin of the crater are contested but it has been said that the crater was created in 1971 during a Soviet drilling operation.
In 1971, Soviet geologists were drilling for oil in the Karakum desert when they hit a pocket of natural gas by mistake, which caused the earth to collapse and ended up forming three huge sinkholes.
This pocket of natural gas contained methane, hence to stop that methane from leaking into the atmosphere, the scientists lit it with fire, assuming the gas present in the pit would burn out within a few weeks.
The crater has become a significant tourist attraction in the country.
It sees around 6,000 tourists per year.
In 2018, the country’s president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov officially renamed it as the “Shining of Karakum”.
In 2013, Berdymukhamedov created a nature reserve in the Karakum desert, which included the burning crater.

Calling it a human-made crater, Berdymukhamedov said it “negatively affects both the environment and the health of the people living nearby”.
In 2010 too, Berdymukhamedov had visited the crater and asked local officials to find a way to extinguish the crater.
He had also asked the authorities to ensure that it does not hinder the development in the gas field near the crater.