VALE OF TEMPE. 371 
RUPES UTRINQUE ITA ABSCISS.i: SUNT, UT DE- CHAP. 
IX. 
SPICI VIX SINE VERTIGINE QUADAM SIMUL ■ 
OCULORUM ANIMIQUE POSSIT I TERUET ET SO- 
NITUS ET ALTITUDO PER MEDIAM VALLEM 
FLUEXTis PEXEi AMNis. The various colours 
which adorn the surfaces of these rocks can 
only be expressed by pamting : and how beau- 
tiful would the eftect be, if these masses were 
faithfully delineated, in all their distinct or 
blended hues, of ashen grey, and green, and 
white, and ochreous red, and brown, and black, 
and yellow ! Such description by the pen sug- 
gests no distinct imaoe to the mind. Upon their Amient 
^ ° . . r Fortifica. 
utmost peaks, both to the right and left, we tions. 
saw the ruins of an antient fortress, once the 
bulwarks of the defile, whose walls were made 
to traverse the precipices, in a surprising man* 
ner, quite down to the road. The cliffs are so 
perpendicular, and the gorge is so narrow, that 
it would be absolutely impossible for an army 
to pass while the strait was guarded by these 
fortifications ^ In this part of the defile, as the 
(2) In the valuable " Histoire de V Empire de Constantinople, par Du 
Fresne," we find this Defile of Tempe, and the Defile of Thermopylce, 
again rendered conspicuous by the wars of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries. The former then retained its name. " Les Grecs app^oicnt 
ainsi certains detroits qui sont antre les bauteS moRtagnes d'Ofytnp« et 
i'Oito, 
B B 2 
