Bogatyr opencast coal mining pit, Ekibastuz

Bogatyr opencast coal mining pit - darkometer rating : 5 - A gigantic black opencast coal pit near Ekibaztuz in Kazakhstan that is being mined on various levels simultaneously and features some machinery of humungous proportions. It is an amazing industrial wasteland: an infernal black pit of apocalyptic proportions. Simply breathtaking … if you can get admission to see it, that is. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: see under Ekibastuz in general and in the text below. What there is to see: it's one breathtaking spectacle to be behold, one of the most wow things I've ever set eyes on. The sheer size of the pit defies description. This is, after all, one of the world's largest opencast mines for black bituminous coal ( lignite coal strip-mining is much more common, especially in Germany , and these sites can be just as gigantic – but they lack the deep blackness of the Bogatyr type of coal …). There's a dedicated viewing point with a tower offering two higher levels with viewing platforms – and it was to this point that our little group was taken. (Actually going down into the pit is not possible for visitors at all.) The vastness of the site is quite overwhelming from up here. Then the eyes strain to make out the items of machinery far away down at the bottom of the pitch-black pit – even though there are some true monster machines at work there. That includes the star piece of them all: the "the Big Wheel of Ekibastuz ", a giant of a bucket-wheel excavator. It is joined by countless smaller, but still huge, other types of diggers and shovels.