Holes on earth - the gates of hell that actually exist (18 photos)

Nature rages and plays pranks with man, periodically opening up an abyss under him, similar to the entrance to hell and thereby reminding him who is the most important here...

Great Blue Hole, Belize

The Great Blue Hole is an underwater well off the coast of Belize - 300 meters in diameter and 124 meters deep. The surface of the Barrier Reef is covered with strange ancient stalactites

Darvaza, or, as it is also called, the Gates of Hell, is the most mysterious place in Turkmenistan

Local residents say that geologists have opened the gates of hell and now they will never be closed - after all, for more than 40 years, a 70-meter crater burning in the Karakum Desert has become surrounded by legends. According to some sources, the crater was formed in 1971, when Soviet geologists discovered an underground cavity with natural gas in the desert, which subsequently collapsed, swallowing equipment and a drilling rig, and gas began to flow from the crater. Then it was decided to set the gas on fire so that it would burn out completely, but no one expected it to burn for so long. The burning of the crater is visible even from space.

Dead Sea Sinkholes, Israel

Unfortunately, the Dead Sea is disappearing, leaving thousands of karst sinkholes that are gradually destroying the living and tourist atmosphere of the coast. Today, there are more than 3,000 known sinkholes along the shores of the Dead Sea, and some of these craters are equivalent to an eight-story building in depth.

Depression in Guatemala City, Guatemala

An almost perfect circular hole with a diameter of about 20 meters and 30 meters deep appeared in July 2010 in one of the districts of Guatemala City. The bottom of the crater is not visible even from a helicopter. The resulting hole swallowed a three-story garment factory building and several human lives. According to scientists, the round shape of the funnel suggests the presence of a karst cavity underneath.

Devil's Hollow in Texas

The Devil's Hollow crater measures 12 by 18 meters, the depth of the hole is 122 meters. The well consists of limestone rocks; hordes of Mexican tailed bats live here - according to the most conservative estimates of these mammals, there are at least three million individuals. The moment when flocks of bats fly out of the hole is an eerie sight.

"Devil's Hole" in Death Valley in the USA

The Devil's Hole is a hole in the Earth, the depth of which has not yet been determined, located in the USA, in the desert state of Nevada, in the territory of Death Valley National Park. A bottomless abyss filled with water. It is quite narrow, a little more than a meter in one direction, and about five meters in the other, but the depth exceeds 90 meters to the water surface.

Representatives of the Paiyuto Indian tribe living nearby believe that if you fall asleep near the Devil's Hole, you will never wake up. Scientists explain this by the fact that methane emissions occur from the hole. The hole is filled with hot water, the temperature of which is 33 degrees Celsius. The rocks surrounding the hole sometimes emit sounds similar to the ringing of a bell.

Mayan city Chichen Itza - well Sacred Cenote

This limestone sinkhole was first explored by an American who bought a plantation around it in 1904. In addition to the valuables recovered from the bottom, numerous human remains, mostly children, were found there. An examination of the remains revealed that the Maya regularly pushed people into the well - some were skinned alive, and some were thrown alive from a cliff and left to die. The well has a bad reputation; it is believed that the Devil himself lives here...

Houska Castle in the Czech Republic

Houska Castle was built by the Czech king in the 13th century to close the gates of hell - because under the castle in the middle of the rock there is a strange bottomless rift, which was considered cursed. Once a criminal sentenced to death was lowered there on a rope. In exchange for forgiveness of his sins, he had to tell about what he saw at the bottom. The raised Czech was dead. Therefore, the king ordered to close the hole with a stone chapel, the purpose of which was to close the portal to hell.

Heavenly Pit, China

Sky Pit is a sinkhole in China, located in the Chongqing region. This is a double sinkhole that measures 662 meters deep, 626 meters long and 537 meters wide; its upper “bowl” goes 320 meters deep, and the lower one – another 342.

Funnel on Chatyr-Dag, Crimea - 200 meters

This karst failure is strictly vertical; it was formed from the inside, according to one version of speleologists, due to the erosion of the soil by an underground river. But even today the cave has not been fully studied - due to the steep smooth walls, the complexity of the route and the fear of the abyss, even experienced expeditions have excavated only a few passages and halls, cave pearls, the deposit of which in the depths of Topsuz Khosar is one of the largest in the world.

Sarisarinyama Depression, Venezuela

In the mountains of Venezuela, called the Tepuis, there are four incredible wells. Two of the four, namely Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel, are simply huge - 352 meters wide and 314 meters deep. Another depression is called the “Abyss of Rain” and is more than a kilometer long.

Funnel on Yamal - 200 meters

This crater appeared suddenly. As eyewitnesses say, very thick smoke began to pour out, then a bright flash followed, the earth shook, and a giant black hole formed in the ground. The diameter of the “black hole” is huge. Along the inner edge it is approximately 40 meters, along the outer edge - about 60, and the earth thrown to the surface is scattered 120 meters to the sides. There are two similar sinkholes in the area, discovered in 2014. Today the funnel is gradually filling with water.

Florida State Hole

This hole in the Earth formed in June 1995 in Florida. The chemical concern IMC-Agrico stored phosphoric acid at this place, but one morning it all fell underground, and in place of the waste there was this hole with a diameter of 32 meters and a depth of 56 meters, capable of accommodating 400 railway cars

This hole in the Earth appeared on February 28, 2013 in the Chinese province of Sichuan. Its diameter is 24.9 meters

In Hunan province in 2010, a hole appeared - 150 meters in diameter and 50 meters deep and destroyed 20 houses. Her appearance remains unsolved

And several holes formed as a result of human activity

Bingham Canyon (Utah, USA) is considered the largest man-made hole on the planet. Its depth reaches 1 km, and its width is 3.5 km. The quarry is still in operation.

The Diavik diamond quarry is located in Canada and is one of the most important facilities for the country’s economy, bringing about 8 million carats of diamonds annually.

Mir kimberlite pipe. The depth of this huge hole, located in Yakutia, reaches 525 m, and the width is 1.2 km. It is called one of the largest quarries in the world.

The Big Hole kimberlite pipe is South Africa's most famous diamond mine, located 30 km east of Pretoria, in the town of Kimberley. Officially, this mine is called the Premier Diamond Mine.