On Revelation 2

This is a beacutifully-written book. I see it in all kinds of well-depicted images. Revelation 17: 3-6 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

 The images are depicted to strike different part of human senses----many colors appeared, scarlet, purple. gold, pearl; drunken with wine, also the trumpet sound as mentioned before.

This book  is generally difficult for me.
17:8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction.
17:12 "The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.
17:18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."
Who is the beast, why ten horns and the woman prostitue? Does it refer to things here and present or ?