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Turkmenistan wants to close the “gate to hell” after 50 years
The “gate to hell” in the Karakum desert of Turkmenistan has been burning for decades
© Alexander Vershinin/AP / DPA
The “Gate to Hell” was created in a drilling accident in a Turkmenistan desert in 1971. The burning crater is now set to be closed after more than 50 years
A gas crater that has been in flames for five decades is to be finally plugged according to the will of Turkmenistan’s ruler Gurbanguli Berdimuchamedow. In a speech broadcast on state television on Saturday, the president instructed officials to find a way to put out the flames in Darwasa crater.
The crater in the middle of the Karakum Desert, also known as the “Gate to Hell”, has long since become a tourist attraction of the former Soviet republic. It was created in 1971 during a drilling accident by Soviet experts: They drilled into a cavity, the thin earth cover collapsed and a 70-meter-wide and 20-meter-deep crater was created, from which large amounts of methane gas escaped.
Turkmenistan: “Gate to Hell” was renamed in 2018
Finally, to prevent the dangerous fumes from spreading further, the professionals decided to burn it. But instead of going out after a few days, the fire became a perennial issue. All deletion attempts were unsuccessful. In 2018, Berdimuchamedow finally renamed the “Gate to Hell” to “the glow of Karakum”.
In the meantime, however, the authoritarian head of state sees the burning crater in a bad light. It harms the environment and the health of people living nearby, said Berdimukhamedov. In addition, the country is losing valuable natural resources from which “considerable profits can be made”. These could be used “to improve the well-being of our population”. For the second time since 2010, the 64-year-old ordered the end of the man-made spectacle.