Did you know that there is a passage to Hell and it is located in Siberia? Well, according to one Russian urban legend, it is.
The story tells that in 1989 a group of Russian scientists were working in Siberia, drilling a borehole. It was around 14-15 kilometres long when it apparently broke through into a strange cavity. Of course, the researchers decided to check what’s going on down there and they lowered special equipment. According to the data they’ve collected, the temperature down there was about 1100 °C or 2000 °F. But what is more, they have also recorded some disturbing sounds. The microphone has managed to record a 17 second audio of horrible screaming.
Many men were sure that they have somehow found a passage straight to Hell and fled the site right away. Those who decided to stay had yet another shocking surprise waiting for them. At night, the hole started glowing and strange luminous gas appeared out of it. The smoke formed into something closely reminding of a winged demon and near it appeared the burning phrase “I have conquered”.
It is reported that after the incident the medical crew gave the scientific team a sedative to disturb their short-term memory and blur out the memories of the event.
This story became very popular among christian organisations that often printed it in their publications in the 1989. Religious people saw it as a definitive prove of Hell’s physical existence. A broadcasting network Troitsa (Trinity) was among the first ones to popularise the story.
The story of the so-called “Well to Hell” attracted many people. Some of them provided even more evidence in it’s support, others tried to debunk it. The first and most compelling argument against the truthfulness of the legend, is the fact that there is no such hole in Siberia. Although there is one quite similar to the hole described in the story. It is located on the Kola Peninsula, very far from Siberia, in north-western part of the country.
Many articles on the subject claimed the story to be false, mentioning the fact that none even heard the recording that was so often talked about. And yes, at first, there was no evidence of this recording’s existence. At least up until 2002, when it was sent to Art Bell’s radio program “Coast to Coast AM” with an accompanying letter. The letter said that it’s author has heard the story from their uncle, who was an active collector of paranormal videos and who managed to find the recording in question. Bell played the received cassette and from now on it started to quickly spread all over the world.
This incident has strengthened the position of those who believed the legend to be true after all. But many people were still convinced that it is a hoax. Eventually, some people managed to prove that the recording was indeed fake. Apparently, it is nothing more than an artificially created audio of random screams on a loop with a lot of background noise.
Another interesting twist happened later on, when the American channel TBN that first broadcasted the story in 1989, made another report on the topic. They added the details about the demonic figure that wasn’t featured in their original broadcast and even showed a picture of the lead researcher of the scientific group in Siberia, Dr. Dmitri Azzacov. But that was, once again, proven to be a hoax. As it turned out, a Norwegian teacher Åge Rendalen decided to make a practical joke to see how naive people can be. He cut out a randomly picked Norwegian article about some building inspector, made a fake translation in English that told the story about the Well to Hell and the glowing gas demon, and sent it to the broadcasting network. Along with the photo of the never existing Dmitri Azzacov. Later on, in October of 1990, Rendalen merrily admitted faking the article.
Overall, considering the evidence, the story is indeed only a product of phantasy and the Hell was never found on the snowy territories of Siberia. But even now there are many who believe it was real and that we all should fear the mysterious Well to Hell.
