The Darvaza crater at night: what it is actually like

You smell it before you see it. The last few kilometres are soft sand, the vehicle swaying, and then the horizon glows as though a city lay just beyond the dunes. There is no city. There is a crater seventy metres across, and it is on fire.

What you are looking at

The Darvaza gas crater has burned since 1971, when a drilling rig collapsed into a gas cavern and the escaping methane was set alight — the assumption being it would burn out in weeks. It has been burning ever since. Locals call it the Door to Hell, which sounds like marketing until you stand at the rim and feel the heat push back against your face.

The hours that matter

Arrive before sunset. In daylight the crater is a grey scar and, frankly, a disappointment. As the sky goes cobalt the flames take over, and for roughly an hour the whole desert is lit from a single point in the ground. That hour is why you came.

Later, when the last light is gone and the sky fills with more stars than seems reasonable, the crater becomes strangely quiet company — a low roar, like a distant motorway, that never stops all night.

Sleeping there

We camp in yurts at a respectful distance from the rim. Dinner is cooked over a fire that seems almost comically small by comparison. There is no light pollution for a hundred kilometres, and no signal. Both are the point.

Photographers, read this

• Bring a tripod. Handheld will not do it justice, and the rim is uneven.
• The dynamic range is brutal: bracket, or expose for the flame and lift the shadows later.
• Blue hour lasts about forty minutes. Set up in daylight; do not arrive in the dark.
• Wind changes constantly. Keep the sensor covered between shots — the sand is fine and relentless.
• A wide lens for the rim, and something long for the flame texture. You will want both.

A note on safety

The rim is unfenced and the edge is undercut in places. Your guide will show you where it is sound. Take that seriously — the ground here is not always where it appears to be.