The original Tempe is in
Greece (modern Greek
Tembi). The
Vale of Tempe in
Thessaly was celebrated for its
beauty, much
eulogized by the poets; in its midst there was a temple to
Apollo, to whom the vale was
sacred; and here the
laurel was gathered for the
wreaths of victors in the
Pythian Games.
A lot like the place in Arizona, I suppose.
It is a deep, rugged, narrow valley, ranged with cliffs, 10 km long and in some places only 25 m wide. A river (modern name Piniós) flows through it into the Aegean. Here Apollo purified himself after slaying the Python.
In post-classical times it has been an important fortified route, from Roman times to the Second World War. The Byzantine name for it was Likóstomo 'Wolf's Mouth', and the Turks called it Boghaz 'the Gorge'.