It is a hole in the ground. That’s the simplest way to describe it, but it doesn't even come close to capturing the reality of standing on the edge of the Karakum Desert at night. You’re in the middle of nowhere in Turkmenistan. The wind is whipping sand into your teeth, and suddenly, the horizon just starts glowing orange. People call it the Gate to Hell, or the Darvaza Gas Crater, and honestly, it’s one of the most bizarre accidents in human history. It shouldn't be there. It’s a 230-foot-wide mistake that has been burning since the Nixon administration, and despite what you might have heard on "mystery" TV shows, we actually know exactly why it’s on fire. Mostly.
The 1971 Soviet Blunder
Back in 1971, Soviet engineers were out here looking for oil. They found gas instead. A lot of it. The ground they were drilling on was basically a thin crust over a massive natural gas cavern, and once the heavy drilling rig started pounding away, the whole thing just collapsed. Nobody died, surprisingly. But the rig vanished into the earth, leaving a massive, gaping maw that was venting methane.
Methane is nasty stuff. If you let it leak into the atmosphere, it’s a potent greenhouse gas, but in the short term, the Soviets were worried about it killing the local livestock or poisoning the nearby village of Darvaza. So, they did what seemed logical at the time. They threw a match in. They figured the gas would burn off in a few weeks.
That was over fifty years ago. It’s still burning.
The fire isn't a single "inferno" like you see in movies. It’s thousands of small flickers. It looks like a stadium full of people holding up lighters, except the lighters are coming out of the rock and the heat is enough to singe your eyebrows from thirty feet away. There’s this low-frequency hum, too. It’s the sound of thousands of cubic feet of gas rushing toward the surface every second.
George Kourounis and the Bottom of the Pit
For decades, people speculated about what was actually happening at the bottom. Was it a lake of fire? Just loose rubble? In 2013, a Canadian explorer named George Kourounis became the first person to actually go down there. He had to wear a custom-made aluminized suit and use a Kevlar harness because, well, regular climbing ropes would just melt.
He stayed down there for about 15 minutes.
👉 See also: Something is wrong with my world map: Why the Earth looks so weird on paper
What he found was fascinating. It wasn't just a pit of fire; he actually discovered extremophile bacteria living at the bottom in the high-temperature, methane-rich environment. These aren't creatures from another dimension, obviously, but they are organisms that don't exist in the surrounding desert soil. It proves that even in a man-made "hell," life finds a way to adapt to the chemistry. Kourounis described it as looking like another planet. He was literally walking on a surface that was hundreds of degrees Celsius.
The Government Wants it Gone
Turkmenistan’s leadership has a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Gate to Hell. On one hand, it’s basically the only reason tourists visit the country. Turkmenistan is notoriously difficult to get into—think North Korea levels of bureaucracy—but the crater is its biggest "star."
On the other hand, the government sees it as a massive waste of resources.
In 2022, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov (following in his father's footsteps) ordered experts to find a way to extinguish the flames. They want the gas. They’d rather pipe that methane to Europe or China and make billions than watch it burn for the "aesthetic." But putting it out isn't as simple as dumping dirt on it. The pressure is immense. If you plug the main hole, the gas might just find another way up, potentially under the nearby village or through hundreds of smaller cracks in the desert floor. It’s a geological nightmare.
- The crater is roughly 230 feet wide.
- The depth is about 65 feet.
- Temperatures near the edge can easily exceed 50°C (122°F) just from the ambient air.
Honestly, the logistics of closing it are so complex that most experts think it’ll be burning for another fifty years. You can't just "turn off" a tectonic leak.
Why the "Hell" Label is Misleading
Look, "Gate to Hell" is great for clicks. It’s dramatic. But the locals usually just call it the Darvaza Crater. There are no demons. There are no screams coming from the depths (that’s a different urban legend involving a fake recording from a Russian borehole). It’s an industrial accident that became a monument.
✨ Don't miss: Pic of Spain Flag: Why You Probably Have the Wrong One and What the Symbols Actually Mean
The real tragedy isn't the fire—it’s the village. In 2004, the previous President, Saparmurat Niyazov, ordered the village of Darvaza to be disbanded. He supposedly didn't like the way it looked to tourists. Now, there’s just a ghost town nearby, adding to the eerie vibe of the whole place. You’re standing at this magnificent, terrifying fire pit, and just a few miles away are the remains of people’s homes who were forced out for the sake of "optics."
Traveling to the Crater (If You’re Brave)
Getting there is a trek. You have to fly into Ashgabat, which is a city made almost entirely of white marble and gold statues. It’s surreal. Then, you hire a 4x4 driver to take you three and a half hours into the desert. There are no paved roads for the last stretch. You just bounce over sand dunes until the glow appears.
Most people camp in yurts nearby. You eat shashlyk (grilled meat) cooked over a fire, while watching a much bigger fire a few hundred yards away. It’s quiet. The desert is silent, except for that roar from the pit.
Is it dangerous?
Kinda. There are no guardrails. No "keep back" signs. You can literally walk right up to the crumbling limestone edge and look down. If the wind shifts, you’ll get a face full of hot methane and carbon dioxide. People have fallen in, though it’s rare. Usually, it's just drunk tourists or people trying to get a "perfect" selfie who get too close to the unstable rim.
Environmental Reality Check
We have to talk about the carbon footprint. It’s bad. Burning the methane is actually better than letting it leak out raw, because methane is about 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than $CO_2$. By flaring it off, the Soviets accidentally did the planet a minor favor, even if they didn't mean to. But it’s still a massive source of localized pollution.
🔗 Read more: Seeing Universal Studios Orlando from Above: What the Maps Don't Tell You
There are similar "eternal fires" around the world, like Yanar Dag in Azerbaijan or Centralia in Pennsylvania, where a coal mine has been burning underground since 1962. Earth is leaky. We live on a ball of hot rock covered in flammable gases. Sometimes, we just happen to poke a hole in the wrong spot.
Practical Steps for the Curious
If you're actually planning to see the Gate to Hell before the Turkmenistan government finally figures out how to smother it, you need to move fast. Rumors of its closure happen every year.
- Secure a LOI (Letter of Invitation): You cannot get a visa without this. Most people use a travel agency like Stantours or Advantour.
- Go in Autumn or Spring: The Karakum Desert will kill you in the summer. We’re talking 50°C+ temperatures. In winter, it drops below freezing. October is the sweet spot.
- Bring a Mask: Not for COVID, but for the dust and the occasional sulfur fumes.
- Hire a Professional Driver: Don't try to rent a car and drive yourself. You will get stuck in the sand, and there is no cell service. You’ll be a skeleton before anyone finds you.
The Gate to Hell is a reminder of human fallibility. We thought we could control nature with a single match. Fifty years later, the earth is still screaming back at us in tongues of fire. It’s beautiful, it’s wasteful, and it’s probably the most honest monument to the 20th century we have left.
To experience it properly, you have to stay until 3:00 AM when the moon is down. The contrast between the black desert sky and the roiling orange pit makes you feel very, very small. It’s not hell, but it’s as close as you’d ever want to get.
Make sure your travel insurance covers "repatriation of remains" just in case. Turkmenistan is a wild place, and the crater doesn't care about your safety protocols. Check the current entry requirements through the Turkmenistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs before booking anything, as their visa policies change more often than the desert winds. Once you're there, respect the site—it's a geological anomaly that won't be around forever.