Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Cephissus river flows through the central lowlands of Boeotia where most of the region's flat terrain lies. This waterway runs between Mount Parnassus to the west and Mount Helicon to the southwest.
Engineers drained the ancient Lake Copais during the 19th century after it once covered a vast area in the middle of the plain. Farmers and traders navigated these waters long before modern drainage projects reshaped the geography of Boeotia.
Cadmus was said to have founded Thebes and brought the alphabet to Greece according to ancient tradition. Heracles was also born in Thebes while Orion fathered fifty sons with daughters of a local river god.
Heinrich Schliemann excavated at Orchomenus between 1880 and 1886 revealing the tholos tomb he called the Tomb of Minyas. Research continued from 1970 to 1973 under Theodore Spyropoulos uncovering the Mycenaean palace and prehistoric cemetery.
The population reached 117,920 in the 2011 census compared to 40,000 and 42,000 recorded in the 1889 census. Livadeia serves as the capital while Thebes remains the largest city according to current administrative maps.