Darvaza gas crater
Good to know
- Best time to go
- October to April
- Budget
- $$
- Accessibility
- not-accessible
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
The Darvaza gas crater, informally known as the Door to Hell, is a natural gas blowout in the Karakum Desert that has burned continuously since the 1970s when a Soviet drilling operation collapsed into a subterranean cavern. The roughly 70-metre-wide crater glows orange at night and is visible from several kilometres across the flat desert, radiating intense heat and the smell of sulphur. It is one of the most unusual and widely photographed geological spectacles in Central Asia.