The Door to Hell

Darvaza crater (Door to Hell)

Today, we had a 6-hour land border crossing. What a mess!! I'll talk more about Turkmenistan in general when I do my Ashgabat post. For the moment, just know that we were so late, we didn't get to the crater until 11:55pm - way past my bedtime!

It was both amazing but also a little anticlimactic. It's been burning for over 50 years. It's now only burning at 40% of what it used to. It must have been totally amazing in the past.

It's quite surreal to see a crater 70 metres wide, 30 metres deep in the middle of the desert with flames coming out!

We warned not to go too close to the edge as the edges keep collapsing. However, as it was dark, a few of us didn't realise we were standing on a spot with a huge crack and will probably be the next spot to collapse. We only realised when we went back in the daylight. (I have marked where we were standing in the daytime photos)

The fires started as an accident and have now come somewhat of a tourist attraction known as the 'Door to Hell'. The government has been trying to work out how to stop it for years. You can see all the cranes and equipment where they've been working. Our guide told us that they've worked out how to stop it. And so, they are stopping the gas on 10 October, and expect it to be out by the 15 October.

If this is true, I was very lucky to get there when I did. This was the main reason for many people to come to Turkmenistan, it would have been incredibly disappointing to arrive and it was gone.

*photos also of the yurt we stayed in and a second crater now filled with water.もっと詳しく