Darvaza: The Burning Gates

In 1971 a search for gas went wrong when a whole drilling rig fell into an underground cavern. Natural gas started coming up from the hole. It was set alight so it wouldn't kill everything around. For 35 years now the flames keep burning providing an spectacular seen for tourists. At night the burning gas makes the crater seen from miles away. The crater is located in Turkmenistan in the heart of the Karakum desert. The crater is called Darvaza or The Burning Gates.

Photos by JohnHBradley

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Tagged as turkmenistan john h bradley gates darvaza karakum desert crater gas burning

Published in People & Celebrities Art & Photography Mar 25 2008 07:21 am

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13 comments

Chuman

Mar 25 2008 07:56 am

This looks like a volcano in a plain land, it must be really hot out there.

MandM

Mar 25 2008 10:52 am

Awesome photos!
I can't understand how people can go so near of the crater!

make sense

Mar 26 2008 07:32 am

The gas goes up from the sand at the bottom of the hole. Looks neat. Why wouldn't they extract the gas instead of just burning it?

nb	Mar 26 2008 09:15 am thats great, thanks for sharing this. reply

Alex	Mar 26 2008 09:44 am This is another place in the world i would love to go...nice vid reply

Anonymous

Apr 10 2008 09:19 am

what a waste

RastaMan92

Oct 22 2008 06:53 am

OMG Cool!!!

anonymous

Mar 28 2009 02:31 am

cool,how deep/wide is it?

Anonymous

Mar 30 2009 07:18 am

Its approx 120m across and 5km deep , giant sinkhole of fiery death

Reply:

barube

Dec 31 2009 09:49 pm

Yes it is impressive. It is 100 meters across and approx 20 meters deep. Very cool!!

bb	Dec 15 2009 05:43 pm I understand that the hole is 100m in diameter and 20 m deep according to a slide show I have on the place. reply

kombizz

Dec 18 2009 05:08 am

I am going to this place next year to take some documentary images. Then I am very sure I post them alll to your site.

Viktor

Jan 20 05:47 am

Yes , that is so really beautiful. On the other hand, people have to pay much for gas. There a lot of gas goes up and nobody tries to use it...

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