40.2528°N, 58.4394°E.
Methane gas crater in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan, 70 metres in diameter and 20 metres deep, burning continuously since approximately 1971. The crater opened during a Soviet natural-gas drilling operation when the rig collapsed into a buried gas cavern; geologists ignited the escaping methane on the assumption it would burn off within weeks. The fire is still burning fifty-three years later. The Turkmen government has periodically announced plans to extinguish the crater; in 2022 President Berdymukhamedov ordered it sealed, but the crater remains lit. The site is locally called the “Door to Hell” (Darvaza Gates) and has become Turkmenistan's most-visited tourist attraction in a country that issues fewer than 7,000 tourist visas annually.
A Soviet drilling crew lit a hole in the desert in 1971 expecting to wait a few weeks for it to burn out — and the fire is still going.