An ominous gas crater that has been burning in a Turkmenistan's desert for more than 40 years is a perfect site for boosting tourism in the country, local officials and academics say.

The man-made pit, known as "the Door to Hell", is an enormous blaze of natural gas coming from under the ground. No one is really sure, when the fire in the 60-meter wide, 20-meter deep crater may go out, but it is known for certain that it was started after a drilling accident in 1971.