Short answers, pulled from the story.
The modern English word hell first appeared in written records around 725 AD. It derives from Old English forms hel and helle which described a nether world of the dead during the Anglo-Saxon pagan period.
Scholars trace the term back to the reconstructed Proto-Germanic feminine noun xaljō or haljō meaning concealed place or the underworld. This form comes from the o-grade version of the Proto-Indo-European root kel- or kol- which means to cover conceal or save.
In ancient Egypt guilty persons were thrown to Ammit the devourer of the dead and condemned to the lake of fire before annihilation. No suggestion existed of eternal torture as complete destruction awaited the damned.
The bleak domain known as Kur was ruled by goddess Ereshkigal with Neti serving as gatekeeper at seven gates requiring passage through them. During the Akkadian Period Nergal became ruler alongside Ereshkigal.
Dante Alighieri set his Divine Comedy in the year 1300 employing Virgil as guide through Inferno before ascending Mount Purgatorio. Hell's geography features nine concentric rings leading deeper into Earth until reaching Satan trapped in frozen Cocytus lake.