The Gates of Hell

This huge hole, with a diameter of 70 meters, on a flat stretch of desert, is located halfway along the Ashgabat-Karakum-Dashoguz highway, near the village of Derweze, which means gate.

According to the stories of local elders (white-bearded elders), the crater was formed in 1971, when a drilling rig of Turkmen subsoil scouts suddenly went underground at this place. They say that everything within a radius of 60 meters - equipment, transport, along with the very design of the installation - completely disappeared in the resulting void. Nothing is known about the dead and injured.

The crater began to breathe fire after scientists and geologists decided to burn the gas that was in the pit, thinking that the flame itself would go out after a while. However, this did not happen. The fire in the crater has been burning for more than 40 years, causing more and more interest in itself.

This fire-breathing hole is the "Gates of Hell". Although hardly anyone seriously considers it an entrance to the other world.

Nevertheless, this natural phenomenon continues to excite the imagination of passengers, regular buses and private cars passing by it, arouses genuine interest, both among scientists and numerous tourists, causing mystical fear.