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“Hell on Earth” might not just be an exaggeration.
Scattered about the globe are various locations that scientists believe could be entrances to the underworld, ranging from a volcanic “hellhole” in Iceland to an underwater cave filled with victims of human sacrifice.
For our purposes, the underworld will encompass a variety of different theologies, even though the lion’s share holds significance in Christianity.
Best of all, you can “go to hell” and visit the five so-called portals beyond purgatory yourself.
Gehenna
Few places seem as synonymous with the netherworld than Gehenna, which is the Greek word for “hell” in the New Testament.
The locale — whose name is derived from the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, meaning “Valley of Hinnom” — was a real valley outside the walls of old Jerusalem where ancient Israelites would burn children in sacrifice to the Ammonite god Moloch.
In fact, the image of immolating bodies inspired the concept of “hellfire” in Jewish and Christian theology.
This manner of corpse disposal could have contributed to the place’s hellish connotations.
“In the ancient world (whether Greek, Roman or Jewish), the worst punishment a person could experience after death was to be denied a decent burial,” New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman previously wrote in Time. “Jesus developed this view into a repugnant scenario: corpses of those excluded from the kingdom would be unceremoniously tossed into the most desecrated dumping ground on the planet.”
When the Bible was translated for other languages, Gehenna was swapped out for the word “hell,” meaning this real location is as close to hell on Earth as one might get.
Hell, Michigan — eat your heart out.
Hierapolis
Hierapolis is a portal to the afterlife in both the figurative and literal sense — in that it can actually kill people who enter.
Located in modern-day Turkey, the ancient Greek metropolis has a passageway that leads into a cave-like grotto in an open arena, the Daily Mail reported.
Priests would carry sacrificial animals down through the door, known as Pluto’s Gate, whereupon the beasts would die, according to ancient storytellers.
“[The] space is filled with a cloudy and dark vapor, so dense that the bottom can scarcely be discerned … Animals which enter … die instantly,” said ancient philosopher Strabo some 2,000 years ago. “Even bulls, when brought within it, fall down and are taken out dead. We have ourselves thrown in sparrows, which immediately fell down lifeless.”
Sometimes even the priests would follow their fate or experience extreme hallucinations, according to Fodor’s Travel.
This so-called toxic death trap seemed like a myth until 2013, when archaeologists discovered the carved arch opening in the Temple of Pluto, with fumes spouting up from the thermal springs below like a subterranean gas chamber.
“These carbon dioxide vapors can kill birds and other small animals that get too close to this ‘Satanic temple,’ making it one of the scariest gates of hell on Earth,” reads the travel guide.
Hekla
Those driving the gravel road to this Icelandic volcano venture on the highway to hell.
Medieval Christians claimed that the snow-capped mountain, which stands nearly 4,900 feet, is one of the gates to the nether realm. The Icelandic word “Hekla” refers to a short, hooded cloak, which could reflect the spooky clouds that perpetually shroud its summit.
Volcanos are often seen as real-life hellholes due to the molten rock that burbles up beneath their surface.
People’s fears were seemingly confirmed in the year 1104 when Hekla erupted with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 5 — the same rating as Mount St. Helens’ deadly 1980 eruption.
The 11th-century explosion was so bombastic that more than half of Iceland was pummeled by rock and ash.
In 1180, a Cistercian monk named Herbert de Clairvaux declared Hekla more deadly than Mount Etna in Italy.
“The renowned fiery cauldron of Sicily, which men call hell’s chimney … that cauldron is affirmed to be like a small furnace compared to this enormous inferno,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, 16th-century German scholar Caspar Peucer claimed that the gates to hell could be found in “the bottomless abyss of Hekla Fell.”
Actun Tunichil Muknal
The road to perdition isn’t restricted to the Old World. Case in point: Belize’s Actun Tunichil Muknal — literally the “Cave of the Stone Sepulcher” — which extends more than three miles underground.
While that might seem “underworldly” enough on its own, the subterranean labyrinth is riddled with the remains of children as young as 4, some of whom have calcified like props in an “Indiana Jones” movie.
Archaeologists believe that the cenote — or pit — was revered as an entrance to Xibalba, the “heavy metal” version of hell in Mayan theology, according to Fodor’s.
The after-living quarters were described as a terrifying labyrinth filled with rivers of blood and scorpions, with demonic beings lurking around every corner.
The decedents, meanwhile, were thought to have been sacrificed during the 10th century, at a time when apocalyptic natural disasters such as droughts were accelerating the decline of the Mayan Empire.
They believed they could appease Xibalba’s rulers so they would cease the dry spells.
“Amongst the Maya, we hardly see any – almost no – human sacrifice until the late classic period [the 8th and 9th Centuries CE],” Holley Moyes, a professor and caves expert from the University of California, told the BBC. “And I think they start doing it because they are in the middle of a drought, and they are trying to up the ante.”
St. Patrick’s Purgatory
Now called Station Island, the iconic pilgrimage site in northwest Ireland was once considered the edge of the known world.
According to a Latin text written circa 1184, Christ showed Saint Patrick this pit to purgatory so he could use it as a cautionary tale to convince the stubborn Irish to convert, according to Smithsonian.
Anyone who descended into this hellhole of fire and demons would witness the consequences of shunning Christianity firsthand.
Accounts of St. Patrick’s purgatory differ, but it was reportedly a modest-sized cave where smoke was traditionally inhaled to facilitate a spiritual awakening.
The story was instrumental in shifting Western European perceptions of purgatory, transforming it from a mere idea into a real physical location.
