Darvaza Gas Crater

The Darvaza gas crater lies in the Karakum Desert roughly 260 km north of Ashgabat, close to the abandoned village of Derweze, whose name gave the crater its own. It is a round pit about 60 to 70 metres wide and some 30 metres deep, its walls lined with hundreds of small jets of burning natural gas. Locals and visitors alike call it the Door to Hell or the Gates of Hell, and after dark the glow from the pit lights the dunes around it.

How it began

The usual story says that in 1971 Soviet geologists drilling for gas broke into a cavern, the ground collapsed beneath their rig, and the escaping gas was set alight in the hope that it would burn off within weeks. It has been burning ever since. The documentary record is thin, however, and some Turkmen geologists say the collapse happened in the 1960s and the gas was lit only in the 1980s. Treat any precise date, including the one told around the campfire, as tradition rather than fact.

The crater today

In January 2022 President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov ordered officials to find a way to put the fire out, citing health, environmental and economic reasons. Wells drilled nearby in 2024 now draw off some of the gas before it reaches the pit, and in 2025 the state gas company said the fire had been reduced nearly threefold. Recent visitors describe patches of flame rather than the solid ring of fire seen in older photographs. It still burns, and it is still worth the night, but come with realistic expectations and check the latest reports before you travel.

The area was declared a nature reserve in 2013. Two smaller craters lie a short drive away, one filled with water and one with bubbling grey mud, and most tours stop at them on the way in.

How to experience it

Arrive in the late afternoon, walk the rim once in daylight to see the scale of the pit, then return after dark when the flames are at their most vivid. Most travellers sleep at a yurt camp or a tented camp a few hundred metres away and come back to the edge before dawn. There are no railings, the ground near the rim can be loose, and the heat rises sharply when the wind turns, so keep a sensible distance. Nights are cold for much of the year, even after a hot day.