![]() ![]() A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called “The Essential List”. Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. This video is part of BBC Reel’s Classified playlist. For much of the past decade, as the sun dips below the Karakum’s sea of sand dunes, wide-eyed wanderers from near and far have come to witness this blazing colosseum of fire light up the desert sky. What is certain is that this unlikely methane-belching fire pit has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in a country that only sees about 6,000 visitors per year. Locals say you can see the fiery glow of the crater from miles. Others refer it to the Door to Hell, and the government has taken to calling it the Shining of Karakum. While known as the Gates of Hell, many also call it the Darvaza gas crater. ![]() Yet, because gas and oil were highly prized commodities in Turkmenistan during Soviet rule, it appears any record of the crater’s creation is now classified and top-secret information. The crater is located near the village of Darvaza. According to local Turkmen geologists, the gaping 69m-wide-by-30m-deep crater formed in the 1960s and wasn’t lit until the 1980s. This media cannot be played on your device.īut after Canadian explorer George Kourounis set off on the first expedition to plumb the crater’s depths in 2013, he discovered that no-one actually knows how this hellish inferno came to be. In order to prevent the methane from leaking into the atmosphere, it’s rumoured that geologists lit one of them on fire, thinking it would burn out in a matter of weeks. This caused the earth to collapse, forming three large sinkholes. The story goes that in 1971 Soviet geologists were drilling for oil in the desert when they hit a pocket of natural gas. But if you make your way to the desert’s north-central plain, you may stumble upon a truly surreal site: the Darvaza Crater, a molten gas pit that has been spewing fire for decades and is known as “The Gates of Hell”. Top ways to experience Darvaza Gas Crater and nearby attractions Gas Crater tour Adventure Tours from 507. You could wander through this parched 350,000sq km badlands for days and only see the endless crests and valleys of the Karakum’s barren wilderness. The Karakum Desert is a massive expanse of sun-scorched sand dunes covering roughly 70% of Turkmenistan. Plenty of fantastic multi-day hiking and camping options exist here that cater to a wide range of activity levels.Known as “The Gates of Hell”, a massive molten pit in the Turkmenistan desert has been spewing fire for decades – but its origin is considered top-secret. Photo credit: Helen Holterīaikal is quickly becoming a favorite spot with hikers, outdoor enthusiasts, and campers thanks to the creation of the Great Baikal Trail system, an ongoing project that aims to create a series of trails encircling the entire circumference of the lake. View from the top of Mount Chersky, overlooking Lake Baikal.Old Believers have held onto their traditions near Ulan Ude, Siberia.In Siberia: Unique to Lake Baikal, nerpa are the only entirely landlocked freshwater seals in the world, and their appearance in the middle of Siberia is still somewhat of a mystery.Lake Baikal is dotted with sacred shaman sites, like this one at Cape Oboo.It’s little more than a wide spot in the road, but is an important crossroads with one road leading over the Irkeshtam Pass into Western China and the other heading south to Tajikistan. Sary Tash is a small alpine village situated at an elevation of around 10,000 feet near the Kyrgyz/Tajik border. While here, you can enjoy the opportunity to observe them go about their daily lives, or perhaps even learn how to set up a traditional Kyrgyz yurt. Your hosts, semi-nomadic Kyrgyz families who come every year to let their herds graze in the lush valley, set up camp right next to this incredible historic site. A felt yurt in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.Yurts in Tash Rabat are surrounded by spectacular valley and mountain views.Friendly family hosts at a Tash Rabat yurt camp. ![]()
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