4. The highlands which border on Macedonia are so rarely mentioned in Grecian history, that we find in them few names of places, while in the valley of the Peneus there were always some traditional and historical memorials extant. For although the northern mountains were not destitute of fountains, grassy slopes, and fertile pastures, still the nations continually pressed downward to the fertile lands of the valley. In this plain Gonnus and Elatea are succeeded by Mopsium upon the right, and Gyrton and Phalanna on the left of the stream; and soon afterwards Larissa stood in the midst of the open country,(78) which had been once deposited from the stagnant waters of the Peneus, and being constantly irrigated, always produced a plentiful crop. To the west of Larissa, in a narrower part of the valley, where the hills approach the river more from the north side, there stood, 40 stadia from Larissa, the town of Argura,(79) and at the same distance again the fort of Atrax; on the northern bank of the river were the celebrated city of Pelinna(80) and the castle of Pharcedon;(81) higher up on the left bank, where the mountains on the north begin to recede and form another plain, was the ancient city of Tricca.(82) Between Tricca and Pelinna stood, as it appears, the city of Œchalia, so celebrated in mythology; the ruins of which have been perhaps discovered by a traveller in some ancient walls of massive structure,(83) of which Pouqueville saw many in this district. If now we follow the Peneus, which runs from the north-west, higher up the stream than Tricca, we come to the mountain district of Hestiæotis. At about three and a half hours from Tricca(84) is now situated the convent Meteora, whose name alludes to its singular situation upon lofty columns of rock:(85) from which place there were two ways, one leading higher up the Peneus in a westerly direction to Epirus, and the other passing through Stymphæa to Elimiotis in Macedonia,(86) This was about the situation of the ancient fortress of Gomphi, which was near Pindus, and not very far from the sources of the Peneus.(87) It is, indeed, probable that the name Γόμφοι expresses the _wedge-shaped_ form of these rocks. According to Strabo, Gomphi (in the north-west), Tricca (in the south-west), Pelinna (in the north-east), and the more recent city of Metropolis (in the south-east), formed a square of fortresses, in the middle of which was the ancient Ithome; which Homer, from the steepness of the rock on which it stood, calls the _precipitous_ (κλωμακόεσσα or κλιμακόεσσα).(88) From Meteora the Peneus may be followed in a northerly direction to its origin from two small streams; whence there was a path which wound over the high chain of Pindus, and thus reached the country of Epirus. This was in ancient times the road which connected the two countries, and there still remain on it several Cyclopian walls, the strongholds of former ages.