An ominous gas crater that has been burning in a Turkmen desert for more than 40 years is a perfect site for boosting tourism in the country, local officials and academics say. The man-made pit, known as “the Door to Hell,” earlier faced backfill.
Tourism may not be the strongest side of the Central Asian
republic’s economy, as only around 10,000 visitors come to
Turkmenistan yearly, according to official stats – most of them
from Iran, Germany and the US. However, local tourism officials
say they found a promising tourist attraction – and it is really
hot.
Amid the arid Karakum desert, covering most of the country and
known for its extreme temperature changes, one can find a huge
sinister-looking pit known as Derweze or Darvaza – commonly
referred to by the locals as “the Door to Hell.”
The pit is filled by what seems to be a hellish fire, but is in
fact an enormous blaze of natural gas coming from under the
ground. No one is really sure, when the fire in the 60-meter
wide, 20-meter deep crater may go out, but it is known for
certain that it was started after a drilling accident in 1971.
The ground at the site collapsed when Soviet geologists were
exploring a natural gas field – one of the many reserves in the
gas-rich country, which used to be a Soviet republic.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, but fearing that
poisonous gas fumes may pose a danger for the local population
and animals, the geologists decided to set them on fire, thinking
they will soon burn out.
The guys apparently miscalculated – and the gas is still burning,
creating a surreal otherworldly scene.
In 2010, the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov decided
that Derweze has burned enough, ordering the crater to be filled
up or somehow isolated.
Four years later, however, Turkmen officials have seemingly found
a better use for the infernal pit.
“The burning crater... is attracting more and more interest
every year, especially among foreign tourists,” an official
on Turkmenistan’s state committee on tourism was quoted as saying
by AFP.
Moreover, it is a nice attraction for eco-tourists and
researchers visiting the newly-formed 90,000-hectar nature
reserve in the Karakum desert, Turkmen academics believe.
“Landmarks such as the burning crater are hugely interesting
both to people who love to travel and to researchers in various
areas,” Ovez Kurbanov of the National Institute of Deserts,
Flora and Fauna, told the agency.
“Our main task is to create an attractive image of
Turkmenistan as a tourism destination,” he added.
Those visiting Derweze, however, experience mixed feelings about
the site.
“Foreign tourists who visit the burning crater feel mixed
emotions – awe at the sight but also at the profligacy of the
Turkmen people, who have simply let the gas burn for so many
years,” a Turkmen travel agency employee Begli Atayev told
AFP.
Others, like a 34-year-old local Gozel Yazkulieva say that the
site “takes your breath away.”
“You immediately think of your sins and feel like
praying,” Yazkulieva said.
Thus far, getting to the crater located some 270 kilometers from
the capital Ashgabat has been no easy task, but those seeking
extreme thrills can hire a guide to get right to the spot.
YouTube is filling up with videos of the site, which many
observers film from the brink of the pit, ignoring the
possibility it might collapse. Meanwhile, bloggers’ reviews of
Derweze claim that “nothing that falls in [the crater] makes
it out alive.”
Being still relatively unknown, the site even caused some embarrassment for Russia’s Channel One, which last February aired it in the aftermath of Chelyabinsk meteorite’s fall, tricked by some YouTube user.
Метеорит Челябинск новости падение кратер 2013: http://t.co/EI5b6a41BA vía @youtube
— Gersom Zavala (@Geeersh) March 22, 2013
Surprisingly, the Turkmen “Door to Hell” is not the only man-made fire that has been burning on for years, not even the record-longest. In Pennsylvania, US, a coal mine fire that has been ablaze since at least May 1962 has forced whole towns to be deserted and leveled. The fire started in the borough of Centralia presumably from burning trash and has since expanded. All attempts to contain the huge underground blaze have so far failed.