Darvaza is a small mining town in the Dashoguz region of Turkmenistan. A desolate place where sand seems to permeate into every aspect of the locals life. The locals claim that everything has the taste of sand in it.

In the late 1950′s a group of miners stumbled across a large underground cavern, which swallowed up their drilling gear and began spewing toxic gas. In an attempt to keep the gas from killing the surround town folk and their livestock, it was set afire to burn off the gas.

It’s been burning ever since.

Spaning over 200 feet across, 50 in depth and visible for miles at night, it has become a local legend that the government would rather not be publicised. However, if you can get a visa and pay a local with a vehicle that can traverse the large sand dunes to mining spot, you can witness this flaming hole that they have named the “Door To Hell”.

Below are just a few photos by photographer John H. Bradley. Click here to see more of his eerie yet beautiful photographs. Also, there is a video that can be seen of the burning pit below the pictures.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.