A new YouTube video showing the dreaded Anzob Tunnel in Tajikistan has revealed the treacherous journey through the 5-kilometre stretch. The tunnel is seen with soot-blackened walls from vehicle exhaust and a pothole-covered road flooded with water, where vehicles pass freely both ways.

The tunnel was built to secure the Anzob Pass – a dangerous dirt road in the mountains between Tajikistani capital Dushanbe and Khujan, the country’s second largest city. Numerous avalanches, landslides and accidental falls gave the pass its dreaded reputation. An avalanche in October 1997 killed 46 people, burying 15 trucks and cars. The avalanche was so large that it took two weeks for rescuers to reach the victims, according to DangerousRoads.

The Anzob Tunnel, which succeeded the Anzob pass, seems to have lived up to its deadly reputation.

“A number of people died in it due to a breakdown by some trucks and in the meantime other motorists succumbed to the carbon monoxide before anyone realised what had happened," writes Monica Joseph, in her adventure travel book “Keep Moving."

The US$4 billion (approx. AU$5.6 billion) tunnel built by Iran took three years to complete construction in 2006. It quickly acquired the name “tunnel of death” made by travellers and locals who had to brave the hellish journey.

The tunnel is dark and dangerous with negligible lights and lack of ventilation, which keeps the risk of suffocation high. The road is no less than an obstacle course, with potholes that can be up to a metre deep, threatening vehicle breakdown and suffocation.

Alireza Dayemi, deputy Energy Minister of Iran, had spoken in a 2013 interview regarding the challenges of the project; pouring water from the tunnel walls, high altitude and chilly weather.

“These factors have made this project distinctively different from the similar projects and made the process of this tunnels construction incomparable with the other similar ones,” Dayemi told FARS News.

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