Turkmenistan ’s “ Gateway to Hell ” has been furiously blaze for over 50 years , but now the commonwealth ’s authoritarian leader has reportedly ordered it to be extinguished . How exactly this will be done , however , is still to be determine .
Also known as the Darvaza flatulence volcanic crater , the striking inferno in theKarakum Desertis thought to have emerged in the early 1970s when the ground above a cavern collapsed during a Soviet fossil fueldrilling accident . Realizing they had just open up a pocket of natural gas , the technologist take the bold conclusion to burn off the fuel , expect the fire to burn for a few weeks or so . Fifty year on , the 69 meters ( 226 pes ) astray , 30 meters ( 98 base ) deep pit is still burning bright .
Its days may now be enumerate – in a televise address on Saturday , January 10 , President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov differentiate functionary to extinguish the fervour , according toAFP.Along with the potential harm the fires could lend to local people and the wall environment , the president cited economical headache . After all , Turkmenistan has one of thelargest reservesof natural accelerator in the world but miss the infrastructure to full use it .
" [ The crater ] negatively affects both the environment and the wellness of the masses living nearby , " he tell in televised remark .
" We are losing valuable natural resource for which we could get significant profits and employ them for improving the well - being of our the great unwashed , ” President Berdymukhamedovadded .
However , it ’s unsure how the pit will be press out . Back in 2010 , Berdymukhamedov order experts to discover a way to put out the flames , but no evident progress has been made .
The Gateway to Hell has become a holidaymaker spectacle in recent age , although the nation is n’t loosely consider a hotspot for travelers . The gas crater was even used as the backdrop for anoutlandish government filmwhere President Berdymukhamedov sped around the crater in a mass meeting car to prove to his citizens he was n’t dead .
Just like many facet of Turkmenistan , details on the Darvaza accelerator volcanic crater are very thin on the ground , not least because of the sanction ’s passing sozzled control condition on public life . Human Rights Watchdescribes Turkmenistan as an “ extremely repressive country ” with a government that “ severely restricts all key right and freedoms . ”
