Valaforoia
Βαλaφῡροιε
The Valaforia is large waterfall that breaks up the flow of the Tyros River, and marks a definitive end to its navigability from the ocean (though many would argue that the head of navigation lies significantly further south). It is also the dividing line between the Upper Tyros and Lower Tyros regions. The Valaforoia is often visited by tourists, due to legends of the water's healing properties, though these rumors are large unsubstantiated.
The Valaforoia, unlike the other heads of navigation are rleatively unimportant strategically, with the various powers of the Tyros, largely ignoring the falls. Attitudes have begun to shift however, as a handful of engineers seeking out locations to build watermills have selected the Valaforoia as possibly a place to build them. This has made the falls are potentially important industrial resource, and a much more important locale.
Geography
The Valaforoia are located at a major ridgeline where the Thymbric hills meet the lower Tyros Valley. This fall, roughly thirty five meters in height is relatively clean meaning that the waters of the Valaforoia come down in a single, relatively wide sheet. There is a rock face under the waterfall, that breaks up the flow in especially dry periods.
Ecosystem
The Valaforoia, like most other waterfalls possesses a generally barren and rocky, mostly transient ecosystem, with most life moving through the falls rather living in them. There exists on some of the rock faces various hydrophilic lichens and mosses. Little else of note can survive the constant current against the rock faces.
Fauna & Flora
The natural biological landscape of the Valaforia is limited and mostly transient. Most life forms in the Valaforia move through the falls as part of their own lifecycles, many fish come to the falls to cross them to spawn in the areas upstream, and many predatory animals use this time as a means of catching some easy proteins especially birds and bears. In terms of plantlife, there is virtually none, only a handful of lichens and mosses on the rocks.
Natural Resources
The Valaforoia is lacking in many natural resources, and was for most of its history considered a largely unimportant location. In recent years, with the invention of high power watermills, the speedy steady, current makes it an ideal location to build a mill. This has made the Valaforia increasingly important as a strategic resource in of itself.
History
The Valaforoia was first written about by the Yulan-Tai, who had little to say about it, other than as an annoyance for those trying to travel into the highlands. The falls were largely ignored by the Yulan-Tai, who instead bypassed the falls by sailing up an adjoining river and conducting business on land before taking to a different set of boats to travel the Upper Tyros. As a result the falls, and the area immediately around them went largely unsettled.
In the post Yulani period, the region was first settled by Tyroi peoples who established several city-states up and down the Tyros River in the power gap left behind by the Yulan-Tai. Though it was still largely ignored, rumors of heailing properties of the Valaforoia brought in tourists seeking rejuvenation in the waters. The Valaforoia has thus become a culturally important, but mostly strategically useless site until the advent of the manufactory.
Tourism
The Valaforoia has attracted a small gathering of tourists since the years of the Ilosi Republic. It is rumoured that the water of the falls has healing properties and is something of a veritable fountain of youth. This has attracted many ailing people looking to heal themselves in the waters. Analysis by scholars has indicated that these rumors are a myth, but that has not stopped the flow of travelers from throughout the whole of the Aeillan region.
Type
Waterfall
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
