The Karakum desert, in Turkmenistan , is home to the Darvaza crater or well, better known as the Gate of Hell. It is a large opening in the ground about 60 meters in diameter and 20 meters deep that looks quite like the mouth of a volcano. Although it does not spit lava, the flames surround the huge hole as if it were truly an entrance to the underworld in the afterlife. However, there is nothing supernatural about this place. The hole arose in 1971, when a group of geologists from the Soviet Union carried out a prospecting to find and extract natural gas, very abundant in the area. The excavation ran into the ceiling of a cave flooded by this coveted fluid, which collapsed due to the perforations and swallowed all the facilities.
To prevent the gas from spreading dangerously through the area, the experts decided to set fire to the hole , which widens and increases in size as the ground weakens due to the action of the fire. Although more than four decades have passed, the bonfire is still alive and no one has a clue when it will be extinguished . This is supposedly only going to happen at the moment when all the reserves of flammable substances within the grotto are depleted.
