Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
For over 50 years, the Darvaza crater blazed like an open wound in the Earth. Now, satellite images reveal a fading flame—hell is cooling, and its gates may soon shut.
Born of a Soviet drilling mishap, this inferno wasn’t intentional—it was panic management gone epic. Engineers lit it to “burn off gas in weeks.” It’s been burning since Nixon was in office.
What once roared like a volcano now barely smolders. Government gas restrictions have choked the flame, bringing a firestorm to its knees—on purpose.
Its glow once hypnotized travelers from around the globe. Now, visitors are finding flickers instead of fire. The Gate to Hell is fast becoming a ghost story in the making.
One bizarre footnote: spiders, drawn to the crater’s heat, tumble in and burn. Nature’s fascination with the flame was as doomed as it was darkly poetic.
For all its spectacle, the crater is an environmental hazard. The continuous burn wasted trillions in natural gas and belched methane into an already suffocating sky.
Former President Berdimuhamedov wanted it shut years ago—arguing that flaming profits were burning away, while locals suffered and climate warnings piled up.
With gas demand rising globally, Turkmenistan’s pivot to preserving fuel instead of burning it marks a rare collision of economics, climate strategy, and spectacle management.
As the desert swallows the last sparks of Darvaza, a surreal chapter in human error and natural wonder nears its end. The “Gate to Hell” might finally be closing—for real.