The Darvaza Well

The Darvaza well

In the middle of the Karakoum (Turkmenistan) desert, close to the disappeared village called Darvaza, there is a crater of about one hundred meters of diameter and more than twenty meters of depth,

called “the hell’s door”.

Inside this well, a fire has been burning for dozens of years, a fire that looks endless.

The Darvaza well is not a work of nature, but the result of an unfortunate soviet mining prospection started in the 50’s.

 

In 1971, a drilling provoked the collapse of an underground cavity, so revealing a gaping hole leaking enormous quantities of gas.

 

The geologists decided to torch the well

to eliminate such toxic gas,

The soviets grossly underestimated the dimensions of the cavity:

the gas that should have burned out within a few weeks has actually kept burning without interruption since 1971!

 

It is unknown for how long “the « hell’s door » will keep on burning.

Even though the well of Darvaza is located in a region difficult to access,

a lot of people gather there to observe this fascinating phenomenon.

The intense heat coming from the crater allows to approach the place only for a few minutes because of the unbearable temperature.

At night the show is Dantean: the fire burns in all its magnificence,

giving the well the look of a volcanic burning crater.

At night the show is Dantean: the fire burns in all its magnificence,

giving the well the look of a volcanic burning crater.