Hell

 is the first Kingdom of the Afterlife. Within its boundaries, those guilty of sin are dealt a horribly ironic punishment based on their most common sin. Hell is the Kingdom that gets the most notice, due to its dark and exciting qualities. But Dante does not treat it any more importantly than Purgatory  or Heaven, indicating that interpretation was a zinger.

Implied History
Hell, Dante says, was created by Satan falling to Earth and crashing through the surface, creating a massive rift in the ground where he and his followers were imprisoned. The resulting rock displacement created a mountain on the other side of the world. Ultimately, God gave Satan and his demons an olive branch: If they would deal horribly ironic punishments to the sinners among mankind, they would be granted temporary lease. They accepted, and the pit became known as Hell, while the Angels harnessed the mountain on the other side for absolution of sins, calling it Purgatory.

The Circle of Limbo was set up for those who were neither good nor bad, and also for pagans who lived a good life but didn't believe in the right God. Beyond the Circles representing Lust, Gluttony, and Greed were created to represent passive sin - doing the wrong thing, but only suffering a small failing in retrospect. Then there are the Circles of Anger, Heresy and Violence, representing active sin - physically doing the wrong thing against love. But none of these Circles were as bad as the last two, which respectively represented Fraud and Treachery as well as malicious sin - doing the wrong thing on purpose, and the punishment system reflected this: as the Circles descended deeper and deeper, the punishments grew steadily more agonising.