In 1971, a team of Soviet geologists in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert set a collapsed gas crater alight and assumed the flames would burn out within weeks, but more than five decades later the pit travelers now call the Door to Hell is still throwing orange light across the dunes every night

Soviet geologists set the Darvaza gas crater alight in 1971 expecting the flames to last weeks. More than five decades later, the Door to Hell is still burning in the middle of Turkmenistan's Karakum Desert. The post In 1971, a team of Soviet geologists in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert set a collapsed gas crater alight and assumed the flames would burn out within weeks, but more than five decades later the pit travelers now call the Door to Hell is still throwing orange light across the dunes ev