Malebolge

In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy, Malebolge is the eighth circle of Hell. Roughly translated from Italian, Malebolge means "evil ditches". Malebolge is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten concentric circular trenches or ditches. Each trench is called a bolgia (Italian for "pouch" or "ditch"). Long causeway bridges run from the outer circumference of Malebolge to its center, pictured as spokes on a wheel. At the center of Malebolge is the ninth and final circle of hell, Cocytus.

In Dante’s version of hell, categories of sin are punished in different circles, with the depth of the circle (and placement within that circle) symbolic of the amount of punishment to be inflicted. Sinners placed in the upper circles of hell are given relatively minor punishments, while sinners in the depths of hell endure far greater torments. As the eighth of nine circles, Malebolge is one of the worst places in hell to be. In it, sinners guilty of "simple" fraud are punished. (That is, fraud that is committed without particularly malicious intent. Malicious or "compound" fraud — fraud that goes against bond of love, blood, honor, or the bond of hospitality — are punished in the ninth circle.) Sinners of this category include counterfeiters, hypocrites, grafters, seducers, sorcerers and simonists.

Dante and his guide, Vergil, make their way into Malebolge by riding on the back of the monster Geryon, the personification of fraud, who flies them down through the yawning chasm that separates the eighth circle from the seventh circle, where the violent are punished. Dante and Vergil plan on crossing Malebolge by way of the system of bridges, but find their path disturbed by many broken ledges and collapsed bridges that were destroyed during the Harrowing of Hell. They must then cross some of the bolgias on foot and even rely on demons to guide them. Eventually they make it to the inner ledge, where the Titan Antaeus lowers them down to Cocytus.