Great Man-Made Crater
| 地狱洞 | |
 One of three known photos of the crater | |
| Impact crater/structure | |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 0.93 miles (1.5 km) |
| Depth | 590 feet (180 m) |
| Rise | 160 feet (50 m) |
| Impactor diameter | 180 feet (55 m) |
| Age | Unknown |
| Exposed | Yes |
| Drilled | No |
| Location | |
| Location | Pogoth county, Chesad province |
| Country | Daxia |
| State | Chesad |
| Access | No access road known |
The Great Man-Made Crater, or 地狱洞 is a mysterious large crater tentatively located about 60 km west of the town of Pogoth, Chesad province. The crater has a diameter of 1,500 meters, it is about 180 meters deep and is surrounded by a rocky rim that rises above the surrounding plain to a height of 50 meters. The crater's existence is confirmed only by a handful of photos taken by a commercial drone owned by a civilian and then posted in the RockWatchers online geology forum. The forum post and attached image files have since been deleted, along with the original users account. There are several theories as to the true origins of the crater from geology enthusiasts, researchers, conspiracy theorists and overseas government opponents. After the appearance of the photos online, local government officials simply commented that such a crater does not exist and the pictures being bandied about were simply doctored to create confusion.
Giant sloth theory
Renowned paleontologist Denji Paponios proposed that the crater was not a crater at all, but a hive like structure carved out by giant sloths known as Megaterion millions of years ago. According to him the 'crater' was once covered by a hill that eroded over the years and it served as an underground nursery, its sloped walls carved out by the sloths with their large frontal claws. From the central chamber myriad tunnels would branch out to other areas of the sloth colony, although no such tunnel entrances can be appreciated from the available pictures. Other paleontologists have opined that Paponios's theory is bogus science and fanciful.
Asteroid impact theory
The second theory is that the crater was caused by the impact of a celestial body, an asteroid or the fragment of one, during the Shang dynasty era. There are at least three known documented descriptions of bright flashes, fireballs crossing the sky and effects on buildings that closely match an air burst. However none of the sources make any reference to a crater as a result of these phenomena, making it more likely that whatever entered the atmosphere violently disintegrated before reaching the surface.
Corpse landfill theory
A BSP colonel who defected to the Cape in the mid 1990's claims he overheard conversations relating to a site variously referred as the 'Maw' or the 'Heap' close to Pogoth that might have served as a massive dumping ground for the victims of the purges going on at the time. The defector also highlights that 'deleting' individuals to the point that they cannot even be mourned in private by relatives is a practice ingrained in the security organs. Army of Common Men survivors who later covertly looked for the graves of comrades around Khov reported discovering no word of mass graves or bodies being burned around the city after the battle, as if the bodies had all been picked up and secreted somewhere else. If true, the Great Man-Made crater could at one point have stored millions of bodies but inaccesibility to BSP archives renders moot any attempt at confirmation.