Friday, January 21, 2022

Visiting the “Gates of Hell” before they close


Get in there, You. Cleanse your guilt.
(WashPo) If Turkmenistan’s Central Asian president has his way, the “Gates of Hell” may soon be shut.

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said in televised remarks Saturday that he wants to extinguish the famous flaming natural gas crater that has burned in the Central Asian country for decades, AFP (Agence France-Presse) reported.

The president raised environmental and economic concerns and asked his government to find ways to put the fire out. The crater “negatively affects both the environment and the health of the people living nearby,” Berdymukhamedov said, according to AFP. [Just look at all those neighboring houses and people.]
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“We are losing valuable natural resources for which we could get significant profits and use them for improving the well-being of our people.”

Officially called the Darvaza gas crater, the blazing pit in the middle of the Karakum Desert has long been a draw for the few tourists permitted to visit Turkmenistan.

About 200 feet wide by some measures and at least 70 feet deep, it cuts a dramatic image against the vast expanse of empty land surrounding it. More

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