Pausanias speaks rather dismissively about the town of Panopeus (10.4.1): you cannot call something a city, where there are no administrative buildings, neither a gymnasio, nor a theater, nor a market square, nor a public fountain, and where  people live near a gorge, in round huts which are usually found in the mountains. ” However, now it are mainly the city walls of Panopeus (and the beautiful view) that justify a (short) visit to the site.

Panopeus is already mentioned as a city in Homer, and the habitation (given sharf findings) goes back to the Mycenaean period. The city was destroyed during the Persian Wars (480 B.C.), and again at the end of the Third Holy War (346 B.C.), but soon was rebuilt with the support of the Athenians and the Thebans, who wanted to use the place  as a stronghold against the south- Makedonians. Philippos V had send an army (around 200 B.C.)  that surrendered without any fight to the Roman general Flamininus. During the Mithridates War (86 B..C) the town was taken and destroyed again, now by Taxiles, the general of Mithridates.