In 1971, the ground beneath an exploratory drilling rig in the Karakum desert in the then Soviet Union collapsed, and exposed a vent of methane gas that threatened to poison a neighboring village. To prevent that, geologists on site ignited the gas, estimating that it would burn out in a few days’ time. Forty-two years later, Derweze, or the Door to Hell as it is locally known, is still lighting up the sky. In 2010, the President of Turkmenistan decided to try and cover it up or somehow put it out, but the project never came to fruition, and the incandescent 230-feet-diameter crater remains a tourist destination.