According to Dante Alighieri, Hell is shaped like a crater composed of nine circles, the first circle being the largest and the last circle being the smallest where Lucifer resides. Hell extends all the way to the earth's core, situated underneath Jerusalem on the Hemisphere of Land and the mountain of Purgatory lies beneath Hell at the opposite side of Jerusalem on the Hemisphere of Water. Dante's structure of Hell is divided in nine circles and some of the circles are divided in rings. .

             The Upper Level of Hell, which is comprised of the first 5 circles of hell, is habituated by the incontinent. The bottom 4 circles of Hell compose Hell's Lower Level where the Violent and the ones who commit fraud go. Passing the black forest at the Gates of Hell one encounters Peter. Then there is the Vestibule or Ante-Hell, where the souls of the damned fall at their death to be taken by Charon to Hell through the Acheron River. Passing the Acheron River there is the first circle of Hell, the Limbo, where souls that never knew Christ and were never baptized reside. The lustful are located on the second circle. .

             The third circle is where the gluttonous belong; in the fourth circle are the avaricious and prodigals, most souls in this circle are clerics. On the fifth circle, the wrathful emerge from the dirty waters of the Styx River, which surrounds the city of Dis, while the sullen are sunken completely in it. Crossing the River in the City of Dis, the sixth circle is located and there reside the heretics. Next is the seventh circle for the violent souls and is subdivided into three rings. At the first ring the souls that committed violent acts against their neighbors are sunken into the bloody boiling Phlegethon River. .

             On the second ring, are the souls that committed violence against themselves. Lastly, on the third ring of the seventh circle of Hell are the blasphemers of God. Down the Phlegethon River is the eight circle of Hell called the malebolge because it is divided into ten ditches.