THE Gates of Hell are a staple of both theology and pop culture, in both a doorway to an otherworldly realm usually depicted as never-ending fire.
As such, any mention of a “Gate of Hell” will bring up mental images of an unearthly smoke-filled domain blazing red and black eternally.
With that said, it has been claimed that such a place actually exists in Central Asia and that it was “opened” by human action.
Is this true?
VERDICT:
TRUE
Yes, such a place exists and it is in fact a man-made occurrence.
Located in Turkmenistan's Karakum desert, the Darvaza Crater, also known as the Door to Hell or Gates of Hell, is a 70-meter-wide and 30-meter-deep methane-belching pit ignited decades ago.
And with this, the only thing that is agreed on is that this burning crater is man-made as differing accounts exist as to whether the gases in the crater were ignited accidentally or intentionally.
To this day, the precise story of how people set the fire going in the Darvaza Crater are debated as the Soviet-era reports are missing, incomplete or still under lock and key.
The ‘Gateway to Hell’ crater in Turkmenistan. The site is essentially a roaring methane leak and has been burning for more than four decades. — AFP
The most widely circulated story is that the crater opened in 1971 after a Soviet gas-drilling rig accidentally hit a natural gas reservoir.
This caused the ground to collapse, taking the drilling infrastructure down with it as methane gas and other noxious fumes wafted out of the crater.
Shortly after, Soviet scientists set its walls alight, thinking the fire would burn off the methane within a few weeks before dying down -- which obviously, did not happen.
However, Canadian adventurer and television presenter George Kourounis tells a different story.
In an interview with the BBC, Korounis – the only person known to have explored inside the gas crater – said that he met with two local geologists and was told that it is hard to get the story straight.
Kourounis said the geologists in Turkmenistan said that the crater actually formed in the late 1960s and was gurgling with gas and mud before being ignited until the 1980s.
As for the current state of the Darvaza Crater, Turkmenistan has brought up the idea of closing or extinguishing the crater
They later changed their minds, turning the crater to promote tourism.
In 2022, the state-run Neytralny Turkmenistan newspaper reported that the president had asked his cabinet to consult with scientists to find a way to extinguish the flames and close the site.
Since then, there’s been much discussion about the crater’s predicted demise, but there has been nothing concrete to prove the government is going to dampen the flames anytime soon.
REFERENCES
https://www.bbc.com/reel/
https://lisagermany.com/door-
https://edition.cnn.com/
