Central Asia
Turkmenistan
Ahal Province

Karakum

The Karakum Desert is a large, mostly empty desert that takes up most of the central section of . It is famous chiefly for one destination, the Derweze Gas Crater, also popularly known as the Door to Hell, an open pit lake of fire that has been burning for more than 50 years now.
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Photo: Ziegler175, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo: Rastapopulous, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • Type: Sand
  • Description: desert in Turkmenistan
  • Also known as: “Karakum Desert”

Karakum

Latitude
40.1334° or 40° 8′ 0″ north
Longitude
59.1232° or 59° 7′ 23″ east
Open location code
8HGX44MF+97
Open­Street­Map ID
way 232927613
Open­Street­Map feature
natural=­sand
Wiki­data ID
Q172702
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover Karakum from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Afrikaans to Wu Chinese—“Karakum” goes by many names.
  • Afrikaans: “Kara-Kum”
  • Afrikaans: “Karakum”
  • Albanian: “Karakumi”
  • Arabic: “صحراء الرمال السوداء”
  • Arabic: “صحراء قره قوم”
  • Arabic: “صحراء كراكورم”
  • Armenian: “Կարակումներ”
  • Asturian: “Desiertu de Karakum”
  • Azerbaijani: “Qaraqum səhrası”
  • Bashkir: “Ҡараҡом”
  • Basque: “Karakum”
  • Belarusian: “Каракумы”
  • Bengali: “কারাকুম মরুভূমি”
  • Bosnian: “Karakum”
  • Bosnian: “Pustinja Karakum”
  • Bulgarian: “Каракум”
  • Catalan: “Desert de Kara-kum”
  • Catalan: “Desert de Karakum”
  • Catalan: “Kara Kum”
  • Catalan: “Kara-Kum”
  • Catalan: “Karakum”
  • Cebuano: “Garagum (kamadan sa Turkmenistan)”
  • Cebuano: “Garagum”
  • Central Kurdish: “بیابانی قەرەقووم”
  • Chinese: “中央卡拉库姆沙漠”
  • Chinese: “卡拉库姆沙漠”
  • Chinese: “卡拉庫姆沙漠”
  • Croatian: “Kara Kum”
  • Croatian: “Karakum”
  • Czech: “Karakum”
  • Czech: “Karakumská poušť”
  • Danish: “Kara Kum”
  • Danish: “Karakum-ørken”
  • Danish: “Karakum”
  • Danish: “Karakumørkenen”
  • Dutch: “Kara Kum”
  • Dutch: “Karakoem”
  • Dutch: “Karakum”
  • Dutch: “Karakumwoestijn”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “صحرا قره قوم”
  • Esperanto: “Dezerto de Karakum”
  • Esperanto: “Karakumo”
  • Estonian: “Karakum”
  • Finnish: “Karakum”
  • French: “Desert du Karakoum”
  • French: “désert du Karakoum”
  • French: “Désert du Karakoum”
  • French: “Kara-Koum”
  • Galician: “Deserto de Karakum”
  • Georgian: “ყარაყუმი”
  • German: “Karakum”
  • Greek: “Καρακούμ”
  • Guarani: “Karakũ”
  • Hebrew: “קאראקום”
  • Hindi: “काराकुम रेगिस्तान”
  • Hindi: “काराकुम”
  • Hungarian: “Kara-kum”
  • Ido: “Dezerto Karakum”
  • Indonesian: “Gurun Karakum”
  • Indonesian: “Karakum”
  • Italian: “deserto del Karakum”
  • Italian: “Deserto del Karakum”
  • Italian: “Deserto Karakum”
  • Italian: “Kara-Kum”
  • Italian: “Karakum”
  • Japanese: “カラクーム砂漠”
  • Japanese: “カラクム砂漠”
  • Kannada: “ಕಾರಕಮ್ ಮರುಭೂಮಿ”
  • Karachay-Balkar: “Къаракъум”
  • Kazakh: “Qaraqum”
  • Kazakh: “Қарақұм”
  • Kazakh: “قاراقۇم”
  • Kirghiz: “Кара-Кум чөлү”
  • Korean: “까라꿈 사막”
  • Korean: “까라꿈사막”
  • Korean: “카라쿰 사막”
  • Korean: “카라쿰사막”
  • Lak: “Къара-къум”
  • Latin: “Karakum”
  • Latvian: “Karakums”
  • Lithuanian: “Karakumai”
  • Lithuanian: “Karakumų dykuma”
  • Macedonian: “Каракум”
  • Malay: “Gurun Karakum”
  • Malayalam: “കാരകും മരുഭൂമി”
  • Mazanderani: “قره قوم”
  • Mingrelian: “ყარაყუმი”
  • Northern Frisian: “Karakum”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Gara Gum”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Kara Kum”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Kara-Kum”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Karakum-ørkenen”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Karakum”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Karakumørkenen”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Karakumy”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Qoraqum”
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: “Karakum”
  • Norwegian: “Karakum”
  • Oriya: “କାରାକୁମ ମରୁଭୂମି”
  • Panjabi: “ਕਾਰਾਕੁਮ ਰੇਗਿਸਤਾਨ”
  • Persian: “بیابان قره قوم”
  • Persian: “بیابان قرهٔ قوم”
  • Persian: “بیابان قره‌قوم”
  • Persian: “صحرای قره‌قوم”
  • Persian: “قراقوم”
  • Persian: “قره قوم”
  • Persian: “قره‌قوم”
  • Polish: “Garagum”
  • Polish: “Kara-kum”
  • Portuguese: “Deserto de Caracum”
  • Portuguese: “Deserto de Kara Kum”
  • Portuguese: “Deserto de Karakum”
  • Portuguese: “Kara Kum”
  • Portuguese: “Kara-Kum”
  • Portuguese: “Karakum”
  • Pushto: “د قراقم دښته”
  • Quechua: “Karakum”
  • Romanian: “Deșertul Karakun”
  • Romanian: “Karakum Desert”
  • Romanian: “Karakum”
  • Russian: “Кара-Кум”
  • Russian: “Каракум”
  • Russian: “Каракумы”
  • Russian: “Пустыня Кара-Кум”
  • Rusyn: “Каракум”
  • Scots: “Karakum Desert”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “Kara Kum”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “Karakum Desert”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “Karakum”
  • Serbian: “Karakum”
  • Serbian: “Каракум”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Karakum”
  • Slovak: “Karakum”
  • Slovenian: “Karakum”
  • South Azerbaijani: “قره قوم چؤلو”
  • Spanish: “Desierto de Karakum”
  • Spanish: “Karakum”
  • Swedish: “Garagum”
  • Swedish: “Kara Kum-öknen”
  • Swedish: “Kara Kum”
  • Swedish: “Kara-kum-öknen”
  • Swedish: “Kara-Kum”
  • Swedish: “Karakum”
  • Swedish: “Karakumöknen”
  • Tamil: “காராகும் பாலைவனம்”
  • Tatar: “Караком чүле”
  • Thai: “การากุม”
  • Turkish: “Karakum Çölü”
  • Turkmen: “Garagum çöli”
  • Turkmen: “Garagum”
  • Ukrainian: “Кара-Кум”
  • Ukrainian: “Каракуми”
  • Upper Sorbian: “Karakum”
  • Upper Sorbian: “Karakumska pusćina”
  • Urdu: “صحرائے قرہ قوم”
  • Urdu: “کاراکم”
  • Uzbek: “Qoraqum”
  • Vietnamese: “Hoang mạc Karakum”
  • Waray (Philippines): “Disyerto Karakum”
  • Western Armenian: “Քարաքում անապատը”
  • Western Frisian: “Karakum”
  • Western Panjabi: “قراقم صحرا”
  • Wu Chinese: “卡拉库姆沙漠”
  • “Garagum”
  • “Karakum”

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About Mapcarta. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License". Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “Karakum”. Photo: Rastapopulous, CC BY-SA 3.0.