Darvaza Gas Crater

A collapsed, constantly burning natural gas pocket in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan. The crater has been on fire since the 1970s, earning it the nickname "Gate of Hell" in the popular press. The crater is believed to have originated sometime in the 1960s, but exact information on its history is hard to come by, since the area was part of the Soviet Union at the time. The fires are customarily dated to 1971, when Soviet gas engineers are reputed to have set the crater alight on purpose to prevent a potentially catastrophic gas buildup and explosion. Since the dissolution of the USSR, the site has become something of a tourist attraction for the unique spectacle afforded by a 60-meter-by-30-meter crater full of fire, although efforts to tap off the gas supply from nearby wells has diminished the fires significantly in recent years.