The Darvaza Gas Crater is said to be one of the most unusual sites in Central Asia, let alone Turkmenistan. In a vast opening in the earth, natural gas has been burning for more than forty years and its appearance has led local people to calling it the ‘Door or Gate to Hell’.
The crater is located in the middle of nowhere, or more accurately, the middle of the Karakum Desert. Having crossed the border from Uzbekistan, we began our journey driving southwards from Dashoguz: a 300km journey taking five hours. Due to the poor state of the dual carriageway, vehicles basically choose whichever of the four lanes is the least potholed, which meant frequently crossing the central reservation and driving on the opposite side of the road to face oncoming vehicles. On occasions, we went totally off road and negotiated desert tracks, and with temperatures over 40 degrees, we were glad to be in an air conditioned vehicle. Our only stops were to photograph camels and sand dunes and visit holes in the ground masquerading as toilets.
An 8km sandy track from the main road took us to the crater and the nearby yurt camp where we stayed overnight. This meant we were able to visit at three times of day: on arrival about 7pm, when it was dark, and early morning.
Rather than one major flame, dozens of fires burn inside the crater and although they can reach 15m, they seemed relatively small, but that may be down to perspective as the crater is 70m wide and 30m deep.
It was at its most spectacular at night, when after a 10-minute stroll along a newly created path from our camp to the crater, the fiery flames seemed at their fiercest against the dark sky. It was originally a site where Soviet geologists drilled for gas and not knowing what to do when the drilling rig collapsed, they set it alight fearing poisonous gas would seep into the atmosphere and contaminate a nearby settlement. They expected it would burn itself outside within a matter of days, but it has been glowing since 1971 regardless of the weather and our guide showed us photographs of her at the crater with snow falling and the flames still burning.
During our journey the following day, another 277km to the capital Ashgabat, we stopped at the nearby Darvaza Mud Crater and Darvaza Water Crater, with both being more conveniently located just off the main road.
The cylindrical walls of the mud crater, which was a similar size to the gas crater, had sheer cliffs revealing layers of limestone deposits, with dried up mud at the bottom and a small flame of escaping gas.
The slightly smaller water crater, with an unknown depth, had turquoise blue water, with gas fired bubbles making it like a natural jacuzzi.
We understand that in January 2022, the President, with the fabulously unpronounceable name Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, urged officials to find a solution to extinguish the flames to stop the loss of valuable and profitable natural resources. If he succeeds, it will remove one of the country’s major tourist attractions, and more importantly make the road from Dashoguz to Ashgabat even more interminable.
