"Gates to Hell" appear on Earth in the Turkmenistan desert.

A crater that has been burning in the Turkmenistan desert for over 40 years could become an ideal tourist attraction for the country.

The Derweze crater attracts many tourists (Source: AFP)

The aforementioned crater, known as Derweze or Darvaza, is often referred to by locals as the "Gateway to Hell" or "Flaming Mountain" and is located in the Karakum Desert.

The pit is constantly filled with fires, like something out of hell. In reality, these are flames formed by gas rising from underground. No one knows when the flames in this pit, which is 60 meters wide and 20 meters deep, will die out. All that is known is that the fire started after a drilling accident in 1971.

During that period, Soviet scientists were exploring a natural gas well, which was abundant in this gas-rich country. However, the land where they were surveying suddenly collapsed. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident.

However, fearing that the toxic gas threatened the lives of local residents and animals in the area, the geologists set the gas on fire. They thought the fire would soon die out. However, they miscalculated, and to this day, the fire still burns in the crater, creating a surreal scene.

In 2010, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov decided that the Derweze fire had burned enough and ordered the crater to be filled with earth.

Many tourists came right up to the edge of the sinkhole to observe it (Source: AFP).

However, four years later, Turkmen officials seem to have found a better solution for this sinkhole: tourism.

"Every year this sinkhole attracts more and more attention, especially from foreign tourists," officials from Turkmenistan's national tourism committee told AFP.

They also hope this burning crater will help attract tourists and researchers to visit the nearby 90,000-hectare nature reserve in the Karakum Desert.

Currently, reaching the crater, located 270km from the capital Ashgabat, is not easy. However, thrill-seekers are still willing to pay for guides to get there.

According to VNA