A hole in the Karakum desert sixty to seventy metres across and about thirty deep that has been on fire since 1971. The usual account is that Soviet engineers drilling here hit a gas cavern, the rig collapsed into it within days, and they set the escaping gas alight to stop it poisoning the area; the early records are missing or closed, so the detail is genuinely uncertain. It has burned ever since and people call it the Door to Hell. In January 2022 the president ordered it closed, citing health, environment and the waste of gas, and a commission was set up to work out how. It is still burning, though infrared work by 2025 showed the heat down more than seventy-five percent in three years while methane still came off at well over a tonne an hour. About four hours from Ashgabat on an unmarked road; Turkmenistan requires a visa for every foreigner.
Ahal Province, Turkmenistan
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