free-parking:

The 328 feet wide “Gates of Hell” of the Karakum desert, Derweze, Turkmenistan

In 1971 a Soviet drilling rig accidentally punched into a massive underground natural gas cavern, causing the ground to collapse and the entire drilling rig to fall in. Having punctured a pocket of gas, poisonous fumes began leaking from the hole at an alarming rate. To head off a potential environmental catastrophe, the Soviets set the hole alight. The crater hasn’t stopped burning since. (via)

(via scissoringallnight)