This is an area outside of Darvaz in Uzbekistan. The locals call it (surprise!) the Door to Hell. It's the Russian equivalent of Centralia, and like all Russian equivalents of anything, it is much, much worse than the alternative. Whereas Centralia is a small town precariously placed over a never-ending fire and plagued by sinkholes, the Door to Hell was a large gas-mining camp that fell entirely into a massive sinkhole. The Russians, being classic Russians, decided that the best way to avoid getting poisoned by all the flammable gas in their flammable gas mine was...to light it on fire.
That was 35 years ago; it has burned ever since.
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