Turkmenistan. Part III. Derweze

May 26...31, 2014

Most of Turkmenistan consists of desert.

The Turkmens are lucky: the desert isn’t just all sand, it also contains some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves underneath it.

One day in 1971, geologists were drilling a borehole near the village of Derweze when they hit a large subterranean cavity. Their rig collapsed into a giant round hole.

Allegedly, no people got harmed.

The geologists decided to set fire to the hole before the natural gas could poison local residents. They thought it would burn off in a couple of days. But it’s been burning for over forty years.

The sight is particularly impressive at night.

No wonder this place is known as the Door to Hell.

It’s hot and scary.

My guides grill some meat over a fire. Not hot and not scary.

The bonfire dies out. But the crater keeps flaming. People show up once in a while to experience it. The Turkmens don’t advertise this infernal attraction, but they don’t restrict access to it, either.

It looks less dramatic during the day, but it isn’t any less hot.

Of all the world’s famous natural wonders, Derweze is the least polluted by surrounding civilization. No souvenirs, no bathrooms, no signs, nothing.

Interestingly enough, there are two other similar craters within a kilometer of the fiery one. One has a bit of water and a bit of fire.

The other’s just full of water. Although these craters are surrounded by some semblance of a fence, no one ever comes out here or shows them in their travelogues. Even though they’re no less fascinating than someplace like Borobudur, which is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists despite being completely uninteresting.