HELL ON EARTH

1. The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan

Derweze is a small village in northern Turkmenistan, located in the middle of a desert. It is also the location of the “Door to Hell,” a 225-feet-wide hole in the earth. The crater rests atop an underground field of natural gas. The fire has been burning inside the hole in the ground for nearly half a century.

2. Blood Pond Hot Spring, JaPan

This hot spring is located in Beppu, Japan and is one of the nine springs that are more for your viewing pleasure than bathing. The waters of the Blood Pond Hot Spring are so rich in iron that the water has turned red. The color is so intense that one might think someone might have pulled a little Photoshop trickery when they see pictures of this place.

3 The Afar Depression, Ethiopia

Imagine a world where the earth beneath your feet is constantly moving, and at any moment the groundmight disappear completely. The Afar Depression of eastern Africa provides tourists with such an unusual experience. It is one of only two spots in the world where a mid-ocean ridge is visible on dry land, and is the line where two tectonic plates meet.

4. Hell’s Gate Geothermal Field, New Zealand

The Hell’s Gate is the most active geothermal field in the Rotorua area. It got its name because of the foul-smelling springs of sulfurous water and vigorously bubbling pools of mud that are found here. Despite the temperature, acidity, alkalinity, pressure, and salinity, nearly 1,000 different species of extremophile bacteria have been discovered thriving in the North Island’s volcanoes and geothermal areas.

5 Fort Zverev, Russia

Fort Zverev is a very unusual building located in Russia. It used to serve as storage for a highly inflammable napalm-like substance in the 1970s until the whole place was caught on fire. The resulting inferno burned so hot that it actually melted the bricks of the walls and the ceiling. The fort still stands exactly like this today, with the remains of the bricks running down the walls like icicles.