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In the middle of the desert state of Turkmenistan, gas that has escaped from the ground has been burning down for decades. Now the Turkmen head of state wants to finally seal the hole.
However, it is unclear how the crater was formed and when the gas was set on fire.
AFP / Igor Sasin
For dictator Berdimuhamedow it is clear: The gas should be sold instead of just burned down.
EyePress via AFP
The «Gate to Hell» has been burning in the Turkmen desert for over 30 years.
The hole is believed to have been made in a drilling accident when geologists were looking for oil in the Soviet era.
As early as 2010, dictator Berdimuhamedow tried in vain to close the hole.
If you want to marvel at the “Gate to Hell”, as the seemingly eternally burning crater in the Turkmenistan desert is called, you have to hurry. When it comes to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, there won’t be much left of the spectacle that can even be observed from space. The 64-year-old president of the former Soviet state would like to close the hole and prefer to sell the gas that caused the flames, as the “Bild” writes.
Gas is to be sold
“We are losing valuable natural resources with which we could make significant profits,” said the dictator on Turkmen state television. At the moment, the desert state earns money mainly from the export of oil and melons. Berdimuhamedov prefers to leave the question of how to actually extinguish the gas hole, which has been burning for 50 years, to officials.
It is not the first attempt to close the «gate to hell». In 2010, the dictator started a similar undertaking, which, however, did not bear fruit. Fortunately, because the Turkmen President was able to use the flaming crater for a very special staging. When rumors surfaced in 2018 that Berdimuhamedow had passed away, the then 60-year-old allegedly drove around the flame-licking hole in a rally car.
But now the crater should be over, which is one of the few sights in Turkmenistan. There are two popular theories about the origin of the hole: The first suggests that the hole was created in 1971 in a drilling accident in which scientists are said to have set the crater on fire for fear of toxic gases. Others believe the hole has existed since the 1960s and was only ignited about 20 years later.
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