Hell, in many religious and folkloric traditions, is a place of torment and

punishment in an afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict

hells as eternal destinations while Religions with a cyclic history often depict a
hell as an intermediary period between incarnations. Typically these traditions
locate hell in another dimension or under the Earth's surface and often include
entrances to Hell from the land of the living. Other afterlife destinations include
Heaven, Purgatory, Paradise, and Limbo.

Other traditions, which do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment

or reward, merely describe hell as an abode of the dead, the grave, a neutral place
located under the surface of Earth (for example, see sheol and Hades). Hell is
sometimes portrayed as populated with demons who torment those dwelling there. Many
are ruled by a death god such as, the Devil, Nergal, Hades, Hel, or Enma.