Visiting The Gates Of Hell All Over The World (PHOTOS)

Grandma may be breathless over her trip to the Holy Land and your cousin may want to go snowboarding at Heavenly, but most people receive more personal recommendations to go to one place more than any other. That place is, of course, Hell.

Unfortunately, the people who issue the common directive to "Go to Hell," are normally woefully unspecific about how to get there. It turns out that Hell, like Carnegie Hall, is accessible to people willing to follow two very different sets of directions. The easiest way to get there is to lie, cheat, steal, fornicate, blaspheme and wait for the inevitable. The problem with this approach is that you might not get a round-trip ticket. The second way is a bit more complicated: Find the gates to Hell and walk right through.

Legend has long held that there are passageways that lead to the underworld. In the spirit of Halloween, we've found 10 possible entrances to the ultimate pit of despair ranging from the innocuous (a lovely town in Norway) to the decidedly warmer (a perpetual fire in Turkmenistan).

In case Virgil isn't available, we would also suggest a little preparatory reading. Hell, rather unsurprisingly, has an excellent website where you can make reservations for some excellent acts and there are also online and print guides to the only neighborhood that never gentrifies.

For maximum effect, play some Led Zeppelin while clicking through our guide to the ultimate bonfire.

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Comments

[Dr of psychology]

07:13 PM on 10/28/2011

~ The Day of Judgement is as sure as the sunrise ~

[GhostOfFDR]

06:53 PM on 10/27/2011

What a weak list.... They forgot all these: http://tinyurl.com/3zaetto

[pphhrogg]

07:28 PM on 10/26/2011

There is no "hell".

[surferlaments]

12:32 AM on 10/27/2011

that is a pretty big statement. can you prove there is no hell? you must be clowning around again.

[Johnny Dionysus Warpath]

05:47 PM on 10/26/2011

I tried adding "Orange County, California" but I don't think they allowed it. Bummer. Not even Virgil would touch that place.

[Saumya Arya Haas]

04:53 PM on 10/26/2011

Great slideshow!
I'm always pleased to see Vodou included, but I'm not sure why Ginen would be considered "Hell." It's more analogous to heaven or paradise. I suppose the ancient concept of the Underworld translates to the modern Hell regardless of the quality of afterlife! :)

[Redhunteur]

06:18 AM on 10/26/2011

If those photos are supposed to be gates to hell I say "let's go" because most of them are gorgeous and definitely non-hellish looking.

[Isabella Caldwell]

01:30 PM on 10/26/2011

If the Devil comes with a pretty face, so can Hell.

[Redhunteur]

03:41 AM on 10/27/2011

Religious paranoia is so entertaining.

[notwaff]

12:28 AM on 10/26/2011

.....

Here are the stories who visited the gates of hell

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8149875636555097567

[Klein bottle]

11:54 AM on 10/25/2011

I know where one of the gates of Hell is. My pre-teen daughters room.

[horhay]

01:49 PM on 10/25/2011

Please tell us her name isn't Reagan...

[syntax facit saltum]

04:50 PM on 10/25/2011

Maybe it's Buffy.

[Tomtom2]

02:08 PM on 10/24/2011

They left out the GOP presidential debates.

"The easiest way to get there is to lie, cheat, steal, fornicate, blaspheme and wait for the inevitable."

[whirlpool]

12:22 PM on 10/24/2011

Locally the gates to hell are the front door of almost every church in town.

[syntax facit saltum]

04:50 PM on 10/25/2011

I think the true entrance to hell is straight through the human heart.

[whirlpool]

05:18 PM on 10/25/2011

Hard to disagree with that saltum.

[irishguy331]

12:17 PM on 10/24/2011

really huffpost? you have to throw in a liberal Bush-bashing joke, even in a slideshow like this? Your articles are so blatantly biased. This coming from someone who voted for Obama this previous election. I am so sick of the lack of objectivity and unbiased commentary, or at least a resemblance of it, in any of your stories. Thanks to your lack of journalistic merit, I'll be switching my homepage to the NYtimes and deleting my AOL mail account. Great job, Huffpost staff.

[signgrrl]

08:24 PM on 10/25/2011

you've been here since May and this is only your 3rd post ? not sure you really think you're giving up too much.

[Redhunteur]

06:15 AM on 10/26/2011

Posting is not reflective of how often this person reads stories here.

[ahnree]

12:06 PM on 10/24/2011

Its amazing what humans want to believe so much in......fantasy worlds - aka. Allah, JC, god, Disneyland (oh thats real, sorry) etc..

[surferlaments]

12:36 AM on 10/27/2011

not really... the real story is you don't know what you are talking about. how is that for a story?

[360Dunk]

11:46 AM on 10/24/2011

I was in Juarez for two days this year...hell on earth. I'd rather spend winter in a cardboard refrigerator box under a freeway in the Yukon Territory than live in Juarez.

[surferlaments]

12:36 AM on 10/27/2011

lol. too funny.

[nthdegree62]

11:37 AM on 10/24/2011

The best part of living in Michigan and having been to Hell, MI, is that when ppl say they will do something "when hell freezes over," I can tell them it freezes every winter!

[mtwdo]

11:24 AM on 10/24/2011

I have seen the gates of hell. Posted upon them is the devil's favorite document: The U.S. Federal Tax Code.