TEMPE, in Ancient Geography, a most pleasant place or valley of Thessaly. That it was there, appears from the epithets of Thessalica (Livy), Thessala (Ovid). The doubts respecting the situation of this celebrated valley have been completely removed by Dr Clarke, who found its name in a Roman inscription on the face of the rock. It is the narrow and steep defile through which the Peneus escapes from the Thessalian plain. This defile is formed by Mount Olympus on the north, and Mount Ossa on the south. It is richly wooded, while lofty precipices present their bare fronts of various colours, amidst the trees. The village of Ampelakia, celebrated for its manufacture of Turkey red, lies within this valley on the south side. The Peneus, according to Pliny, running down between Ossa to the south and Olympus to the north for 500 stadia, is for half that space navigable: in the direction of this course lies what is called Tempe, extending in length for five miles, in breadth for about an acre and a half, with gentle convexities rising on the right and left hand. Within glides the pure stream of the Peneus, charming in the grass on its banks, and harmoniously vocal with the music of birds. In this description Strabo and Aelian agree; the last adding, that it has an agreeable variety of places of retreat; and that it is not the work of man's hand, but the spontaneous production of nature; and Strabo says, that formerly the Peneus formed a lake in this spot, being checked in its course by the higher grounds about the sea; but that an opening being made by an earthquake, and Mount Ossa torn from Olympus, the Peneus gained a free course between them. But Livy, who calls Tempe a grove, remarks a degree of horror rather than amenity, with which the Roman army was struck on marching over the narrow pass; for, besides the defile, difficult to go over, which runs on for five miles, there are steep rocks on each hand, down which the prospect is apt to cause a dizziness, heightened by the noise and depth of the interfluent Peneus.