Turkmenistan plans to close its burning ‘gates of hell’

The past few years have felt like a test life in recent times. Fortunately, 2022 seems to have started promising: Turkmenistan plans to close a burning natural gas crater known as the “Gates of Hell”, presumably to prevent the other three cavalry of the apocalypse from following their friend Kuma through it.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said in a televised statement Sunday that authorities would resume efforts to put out a large fire that had been burning in the Karakum Desert for decades. France-Presse reports. As frightening as it is fascinating, the crater has become one of Turkmenistan’s most popular tourist attractions in recent years.

Citing environmental and economic problems, Berdymukhamedov called on officials to “find a solution to put out the fire”, according to AFP. The crater, which is approximately 200 feet (70 meters) wide and at least 65 feet (20 meters) deep and looks like a fire portal to another world, “negatively affects both the environment and the health of people living nearby,” he said. He said.

“We are losing valuable natural resources for which we could make a significant profit and use them to improve the well-being of our people,” he told AFP.

This is not the first time that Berdymukhamedov has tried to close the gates of hell. He ordered the experts to put out the flames in 2010, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Commonly known as “Gates of Hell”, “Mouth of Hell” and other vivid apocalyptic nicknames, the Darvaza gas crater has remained on fire in the Central Asian country since 1971. Details of the crater’s origin remain a bit of a mystery, but are most often attributed to a Soviet drilling accident. the ground beneath the drilling platform gave way after hitting a gas cave. The story goes that Soviet scientists, having underestimated the amount of fuel under their feet, set fire to a sinkhole to burn the harmful gases that occur and prevent the spread of dangerous fumes. The crew expected it to burn in a few weeks, but more than 50 years later, the fire is still ongoing.