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Trikala, one of the main cities in Thessaly (Thessalia)
is inhabited by some 70.000 people. The modern city is built at the
same position where the Pre-Homeric city of Trikke was built, a city
which, according to tradition, was daughter to Pineos River.
This city, according to
many testimonies, was the birth place of Asklepios, one of the most
famous medicine doctors in antiquity (1247 BC).
Part of the famous Asklepieion Healing Academy
has been discovered, and archaeological research brings new
findings to light.
Trikala is crossed by river Letheos, the
contribution of which to the city's beauty can only be
underestimated. Promenading along its banks is the most popular
past-time for the inhabitants of the city. The river's very name
means "the river of the
dead", etymologically stemming from the Greek word "Lethe", (which
also gave birth to the English word "lethal") and it is due to the
fact that the people in ancient Trikke worshipped Asklepios' more
like a god than a doctor.
The city is generally flat, with a hill-like
elevation at its centre, ornamented by the church of Prophet Elias,
the City Castle and the Clock. The city, being at the western edge
of the Plain of Thessaly (the largest one in Greece), can never be
"overpopulated", since it can easily expand. With no uphill and
downhill streets, it is an ideal place for cyclists! |
