How a yawning fiery crater opened up in the desert to form the “Gates of Hell” in Turkmenistan is a disputed tale—disputed, perhaps, because it’s situated in that particular former Soviet region.
Still smoldering fiercely after over four decades, Darvaza Crater, as it’s formally called, is a surreal sight in an otherwise vast and empty desert.
One narrative claims it was caused by a Soviet drilling operation gone wrong, the result of collapse from the dissolution of salt layers leading to an environmental crisis.
Turkmens themselves tell a different story. They hold the burning crater originated decades earlier—a sinkhole once gurgling with gas and mud formed in the 1960s, as Turkmenistan boasts the fifth largest natural gas reserve in the world.
Others have merely resigned themselves to indifference, calling the phenomenon one shrouded in mystery, fueling the sublime portal’s enigma.
Many agree, however, that the dangerous leaking of natural gas was ignited by Soviet engineers in the 1980s. They hoped the gas pocket would flare out but apparently underestimated the reserve’s immense volume, as it just kept burning.
It would continue burning nonstop, without letup, for over four decades to the present; it looks the same now as it always has. The result is a sublime sight for tourists and scientists alike.
The Darvaza Crater combusts day and night amid the vast Karakum Desert in north-central Turkmenistan, near the village of Darvaza, about 160 miles from the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat. For its otherworldliness and size, it has been likened to something from another planet. It measures 225 feet (69 meters) across and 99 feet (30 meters) deep, with an area that would nearly cover an American football field, endzones included.
From a distance, as one approaches the red glow, one can hear the sound of flames while the odor of combustion and hot wind can be sensed downwind. Nearing the crater, the incredible heat makes it too hot to stand beside some points along the edge; in other places, one must shield one’s face to withstand the heat.
All covering the walls and floor of the crater are thousands of dancing flames, emerging through cracks, each marking a spot where natural methane seeps out from underground. As this gas combines with oxygen and extreme heat, it combusts, bursting into perpetual flames.
Although the origins of Darvaza Crater remain sketchy, most agree it was ignited to prevent dangerous emissions of poisonous methane gas from escaping into the air. This technique of “flaring” is similar to how oil rigs and refineries today regularly burn off excess emissions that can otherwise be hazardous.
First Exploration of Darvaza Crater
It was said that no one had ever set foot inside the flaming crater—until professional storm chaser George Kourounis was commissioned by National Geographic to explore its depths in 2013 and successfully did so.His mission? To collect samples throughout parts of the crater in search of signs of life and help determine whether life might exist on other planets, where scorching climates are inhospitable to humans.
Donning a heat-reflective suit and breathing apparatus with gear and rope made from fireproof Kevlar—all specially designed for the purpose—Mr. Kourounis strapped into a harness and rode out on a line strung across the crater. He then lowered himself down into the hellish pit and began studying the hot, methane-rich biome.
“When you go out over, looking straight down, it’s literally like another planet almost,” he told the outlet, adding that it was “just so beautiful,” a “coliseum of fire,” below.
“At the same time there [were] so many things that I had to do, these checklists of things—checking my air, clearing the ropes, gathering samples, preparing video, all of these things—that you don’t really have time to get too scared.”
He said, “The sound was like that of a jet engine, this roaring, high-pressure, gas-burning sound. And there was no smoke. It burns very cleanly, so there’s nothing to obscure your view.”
The results of the expedition exceeded all expectations, he said. They found some bacteria living sparsely but “very comfortably” on the crater’s bottom that were not found outside the crater.
Notably, the Darvaza Crater is located near two similar sinkholes, the Darvaza Mud Crater and the Water Crater, lending credence to the tale of its natural formation. Both these craters, like the Gates of Hell, are similarly stirred by a steady bubbling of methane, while Mud Crater occasionally ignites into gas-caused flareups.
The Gates of Hell (also called the Door to Hell) has become a minor tourist attraction in post-Soviet Turkmenistan, perhaps aided by its being declared a natural reserve in 2013. In 2019 President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow even appeared on state television and drove donuts beside the infernal hole to dispel rumors of his death.
Initially, he had pushed for controlling the methane leak by extinguishing the blaze and sealing the hole, but has since changed his tune, making it a tourist attraction instead—thus allowing the flames of Darvaza Crater to burn on indefinitely.
