A gas crater that has been in flames for five decades is supposed to have its throat plugged once and for all, according to the will of Turkmenistan's ruler Gurbanguli Berdimuchamedow.
In a speech broadcast on state television on Saturday, the president instructed officials to find a way to put out the flames in Darwasa crater.
The crater in the middle of the Karakum Desert, also known as the “Gate to Hell”, has long since become a tourist attraction of the former Soviet republic.
It was created in 1971 during a drilling accident by Soviet experts: They drilled into a cavity, the thin earth cover collapsed and a 70-meter-wide and 20-meter-deep crater was created, from which large amounts of methane gas escaped.
Finally, to prevent the dangerous fumes from spreading further, the professionals decided to burn it.
But instead of going out after a few days, the fire became a perennial issue.
All deletion attempts were unsuccessful.
In 2018, Berdimuchamedow finally renamed the “Gate to Hell” to “the glow of Karakum”.
In the meantime, however, the authoritarian head of state sees the burning crater in a bad light.
It harms the environment and the health of people living nearby, said Berdimukhamedov.
In addition, the country is losing valuable natural resources from which "considerable profits can be made".
These could be used "to improve the well-being of our population".
For the second time since 2010, the sixty-four year old ordered the end of the man-made spectacle.