Heaven, the heavens, seven heavens, pure lands, Tian,
Jannah, Valhalla, or the
Summerland, is a common religious, cosmological, or transcendent place where beings such as gods, angels,
jinn, saints, or
venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or live. According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases enter heaven alive.
Heaven is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, a paradise, in contrast to hell or the underworld or the "
low places", and universally or
conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness,
piety, faith or other virtues or right beliefs or simply the will of God.
Hell, in many religious and folkloric traditions, is a place of torment and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell as an eternal destination, while religions with a
cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations. Typically, these traditions locate hell in another dimension or under the earth's surface and often include entrances to hell from the land of the living. Other afterlife destinations include purgatory and limbo.