The "Gates of Hell" are a 230-foot wide fiery sinkhole in the Karakum Desert that has been burning for fifty years.
The pit, located about 150 miles north of the Central Asian country's capital, started burning. The Soviet Union may have set it on fire in a bid to get more resources.
There is a rumor that the Soviets found a natural gas deposit and then filled it with dangerous gas. They thought it would burn out quickly, but couldn't have been more wrong.
Metro reported that thousands of people visit the pit every year after the President of the country tried to stop the burning. The rumor was that Berdimuhamedov had died, and he did donuts in a rally car outside the crater.
The video shows the President of Turkmenistan riding a horse, shooting a gun, and driving donuts around the Gates of Hell.
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Tom O'Connor posted on August 7, 2019.
So... us too?
The US might be able to learn a thing or two if Turkmenistan can figure out how to put out the fire. The Centralia fire in Pennsylvania is one of the long-term fires here. Centralia was a booming coal town about a century ago. It was mostly abandoned after the town accidentally set an underground coal seam on fire in 1962, and it was a ghastly phenomenon that inspired the Silent Hill horror franchise.
The Centralia fire is one of 38 coal fires in the state that could continue burning for another century, according to the US Department of Environmental Protection. Maybe the US could benefit from a plan Berdimuhamedov comes up with to stop his own raging flames.
More on fiery pits: Oil company that caught ocean on fire has a long history of deaths.
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