Udachnaya Pipe - The World Biggest Hole

The Udachnaya pipe (literally lucky pipe) is the largest diamond deposit in the Daldyn-Alakit kimberlite field in Sakha Republic, Russia and one of the largest in the world. It is an open-pit mine located just outside the Arctic circle and it is more than 600 meters (1980 feet) deep. When you are standing on the top, the huge Caterpillars look tiny. And when you are at the bottom of the pipe, it looks... well, it looks just amazing. Udachnaya was discovered on June 15, 1955, just two days after the discovery of the diamond pipe Mir by Soviet geologist Vladimir Shchukin and his team. The nearby settlement of Udachny is named for the deposit. Udachnaya pipe is controlled by Russian diamond company Alrosa, which plans to halt open-pit mining in favor of underground mining in 2010.