Soviet Turkmenistan and The Door to Hell

<p>Smack bang in the middle of Turkmenistan&rsquo;s desolate Karakum desert, one of the most sparsely populated areas in Central Asia, there&rsquo;s a gargantuan crater some 70 metres wide that&rsquo;s been burning for as long as anyone can remember.</p> <p>The area is famous for two other notable, if comparatively prosaic, craters, too &mdash; the Water Crater and the Mud Crater (is this the setup to a Pok&eacute;mon game?) &mdash; but the fiery Door to Hell remains, for obvious reasons, Karakum&rsquo;s star attraction.</p> <p>I say star attraction, but Turkmenistan (renowned, since the USSR&rsquo;s collapse, for its repressive totalitarianism and loosey-goosey approach to human rights) is one of the least visited countries in the world, receiving as little as 14,000 tourists a year.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@bradwoodhouse/soviet-turkmenistan-and-the-door-to-hell-3cf2d008c906"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>