Fun Fact: the Door to Hell has been burning for over 40 years

What is the Door to Hell you may ask? Well I should think that would be pretty obvious!

But religious connotations aside, the Door to Hell (also known as the Gates to Hell) is literally a flaming pit in the middle of Turkmenistan. Looking at photos, it’s pretty clear how they got the name, no?

Though the exact details seem to be pretty hush hush, it’s generally accepted that way back in 1971, some Soviet scientists dug a wee bit too far, too fast, and stumbled upon a giant pocket of natural gas. They were kind of like oh cool, a giant hole (my words), and moved on, until livestock started dropping dead and they realized it was perhaps more than just a giant hole.

Bonus fun fact: natural gas is naturally odourless. The scent is added in hopes that we notice a gas leak before our furry friends are sacrificed.

Once it was determined they’d opened a giant can of worms (very gassy worms), a solution was needed. One of the scientists solved the problem: if we light it on fire it’ll burn away! S’mores anyone? (Again, my words).

It kind of worked. The gas did indeed burn away and the local animals were relieved to be spared, but your typical week-long campfire it was not. The crater, which was expected to burn itself out in a week or two, still burns today.

Madness. And totally on my bucket list. But.. maybe for after I’ve covered a lot of other things. I’m pretty clumsy, and I’m not sure how much I want to risk falling head first into hell.