Door to hell or Darvaza gas creator, located in Turkmenistan village, was set to fire intentionally in order to prevent the spread of methane gas.
This fire crater was caused by a drilling blunder and is said to be burning for more than 40 years.
1971 drilling mishap
Located in the middle of the Karakum desert, the site was said to be one of the largest oil reserves in the world. In 1971, soviet engineers set up a drilling rig on the site. They started their operations to assess the quantity of oil present in this site. A camp and drilling rig was set at the site an initial survey, was done. It was soon assessed as a natural gas pocket.
Fire lit to burn the dangerous gas
It was also believed that the gas from the field would start being stored. Suddenly at that time, the ground beneath the drilling rig and camp collapsed into a wide crater. Dangerous gas was expected to release from the crater to the nearby towns. At that time, large number of methane gas started to produce. The engineers thought to burn the gas off by lighting a fire as it was the only solution that came into mind at that time.
Thus, the fire was lightened to burn the poisonous gas and solve the problem. The 230 feet wide burning hole was named as the door to hell by the locals. Initially, when the fire was lighted, it was believed that the fire would burn out for just some weeks. However, undeniably it is still burning for the last four decades. One main reason for its name is due to endless flame and boiling mud found inside.
The crater is burning for 40 years
Nearly four decades have passed and the crater is still burning. It has become a great tourist place and every year hundreds of tourists move to visit the burning crater. It is one of the most bizarre places to visit in the world.
Tourists attraction
Most of the tourists claimed that day time is not the right time to visit this place because it makes the crater look like a hole in the empty desert. The time when the day passes and the sun begins to set, the large hole in the middle of the desert turns out to be a center of attention that dominated the surrounding area. The endless flame and the boiling mud can be clearly witnessed and the glow become more intense and lit up the area.
Read about: The disastrous incident on K2 in 2008
