The Flaming Pit in the Heart of the Karakum

In the middle of the desolate Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, a massive burning cavern roars into the night sky. Known locally as the **Door to Hell** (*Cehennem Kapısı*), the **Darvaza Gas Crater** spans 70 meters (230 feet) in diameter and plunges 30 meters deep.

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The Soviet Drilling Mishap

In 1971, Soviet petroleum geologists were drilling for oil reserves when their rig tapped into an immense subterranean pocket of pressurized natural gas. The ground beneath the drilling equipment collapsed, swallowing the camp into a giant sinkhole.

Fearing that poisonous methane gas would escape and kill livestock and villagers in nearby Derweze, engineers decided to set the crater alight, estimating that the gas pocket would burn out in a few weeks. That was over **50 years ago**, and the inferno has never stopped burning.

In 2013, Canadian explorer George Kourounis descended into the fiery depths wearing a kevlar heat-suit, discovering bizarre extremophile bacteria thriving in the methane-rich superheated soil.