Kola Superdeep Borehole

Kola Superdeep Borehole is located on the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia and represents one of the most extreme scientific experiments ever attempted. Begun in 1970 by Soviet scientists, the project aimed to drill as deep as possible into the Earth’s crust to study its composition. At its deepest point, Borehole SG-3 reached an astonishing depth of 12,262 metres, a record that still stands today.

While the project was a scientific endeavour, it became surrounded by legend after its abandonment in the early 1990s. A sensational story spread in Western media claiming that researchers had lowered a microphone into the borehole and recorded the screams of the damned, leading to the nickname “the Well to Hell.” Though entirely fictional, the myth permanently fused the site with ideas of Hell, forbidden knowledge, and human hubris.

The real reasons for the project’s end were technical and political: extreme temperatures deep underground made further drilling impossible, and the collapse of the Soviet Union ended funding. Today, the site is abandoned, sealed with a metal cap and surrounded by decaying buildings. Standing there, it feels less like a scientific failure and more like a monument to humanity’s urge to dig ever deeper — and the unsettling thought of what might lie beneath our feet.