During my trip to Turkmenistan, I was most excited about visiting the Darvaza Crater, also lovingly known as the “Gates of Hell” or the “Door to Hell”. It’s actually what sparked me to take my trip to Turkmenistan sooner rather than later. In 2022, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov asked geologists to figure out how to extinguish the Gates of Hell, even though it tends to be Turkmenistan’s major draw for tourism (for a place that’s on the 20 least visited countries in the world). Having a mild (and healthy!) obsession with the Gates of Hell since 2018, I knew I had to make visiting Turkmenistan a priority as soon as the country opened up again for tourism in 2023 post-COVID.

This flaming pit is in the middle of the Karakum Desert and lies about 160 miles from the capital of Ashgabat. For someone who is prone to motion sickness, the rough drive out into the desert was pretty brutal. Between AC not working in our car and having to keep our windows rolled up, due to the desert’s dust, I could not wait to get there and enjoy a mediocre mojito on the campsite (Turkmens seem to love their mojitos, another random surprise I discovered in the country!). And while not as famous as the Darvaza Crater, there are two other craters not too far away, one made of mud that has a much smaller flame, and one filled with water.

This 230-foot-wide and 66-foot deep pit has been burning for over 50 years. Back in 1971, Soviet geologists were drilling out in the desert for oil, when they hit a pocket of natural gas. Their drilling caused the ground to collapse and hence creating this crater. The drillers assumed that the gas would eventually burn itself out and decided to light it on fire. And as of 2025, it has been burning ever since!

The flames were less impressive during the daylight and it wasn’t until the sun went down that I truly feel like we were in hell. But regardless of the time of day, there’s a strong heat coming off this crater that is undeniable.

We got settled into our campsite yurts, with every intention of dragging out our bedding to sleep by the fire once everyone went to bed. Which took a while…Everyone viewed our time there as another excuse to get drunk and have the party of a lifetime by the crater. While our group, Young Pioneer Tours was the only one camping at Darvaza overnight, there were other groups that stopped by for a few hours, to grab pictures and party before moving on. I remember one person exclaiming how this area would make for either a great movie set or a place to host raves. I have to kindly disagree as I think that would take away the magic of Darvaza. And if you weren’t careful, you might even loose an article of clothing, which happened to one of the other tourists in our group, known as the “Traveling Wizard” who lost his cowboy hat in the flames. Luckily no one fell in themselves, with the amount of drinking happening in the group…

My best friend and I split our time between hanging out by the crater and hiking up a nearby dune to view this magnificent site from above. We “attempted” to make s’mores from our grocery store run earlier that day, in which we could only find what sort of resembled as marshmallows, as well as gathered some chocolate and mini graham crackers. We tried!

After about 2am, most people had stumbled their way back into their yurts, which was the perfect time to grab our blankets and mattress pads to sleep by the fire. While keeping a healthy distance from the fire as to not sleepwalk into the flames, I had a rough night of sleep, feeling like I could develop hypothermia at any moment. Turkmenistan had been uncomfortably hot during the days for the end of September and October months, but nights in the desert get cold, as I soon found out (hey, I’m a mountain and ocean girl, this was one of my first experiences in a desert!).

After a few hours of sleep, I woke up to an incredible sunrise over the crater, one of my favorite sunrises I have ever experienced! And like the Traveling Wizard, I thought I had lost my scarf into the fire, but luckily I had found it in time, hanging off the edge of the crater.

The Darvaza Crater exceeded my expectations and I would go back there in a heartbeat. As of 2025, the crater has not yet been extinguished and I’m hoping to have a return trip back out there in 2026 when I’m (hopefully!) in nearby Kyrgyzstan for the World Games. If you like quirky and otherworldly destinations, the Darvaza Crater will not disappoint!