Her excessive luxury, pride and persecution are well known as are her seven hills. Johnson points out the word here translated hills is elsewhere in Revelation translated as mountain. He also points out that the seven hills refer to the beast and not to the woman. The expression in the next verse that they are also seven kings identifies the mountains as seven kings. They are also seven kings.
Wisdom is once more required.
The seven heads of the beast are seven hills and also seven kings, they are seven incarnations of the beast, the number seven should be taken symbolically. So one of the heads is currently a king, but note, in verse 11 that the beast is not . It is possible that John is projecting himself back to the reign of Vespasian. There are many other permutations possible and none is satisfactory. The difficulties arise by taking seven kings to be a literal seven rather than meaning completeness, a complete series of emperors.