The Hungarian puszta () is a temperate grassland biome of the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain (however, the Great Hungarian Plain was not par ...

. It is an exclave of the Pannonian Steppe, and lies mainly around the River

Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa (see below) is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. It was once called "the most Hungarian river" because it used to flow entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national bo ...

in the eastern part of Hungary, as well as in the western part of the country and in the

Burgenland Burgenland (; ; ; Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland''; Slovene language, Slovene: ''Gradiščanska''; ) is the easternmost and least populous Bundesland (Austria), state of Austria. It consists of two statutory city (Austria), statut ...

of Austria. It covers a total area of about . The characteristic landscape is composed of treeless plains, saline steppes and

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). I ...

s, and includes scattered sand dunes, low, wet forests and freshwater marshes along the floodplains of the ancient rivers. It is strongly associated with traditional Hungarian breeds of domestic animal including the Hungarian Grey breed of cattle, the

Mangalitsa The Mangalica (, also Mangalitsa or Mangalitza) is a Hungary, Hungarian list of pig breeds, breed of domestic pig. It was developed in the mid-19th century by crossbreeding breeds from the nearby Romanian Salonta Hungarian language, (Hunga ...

breed of woolly pig, the Nonius breed of horse and the Racka breed of horned sheep, and also with the traditions of the

csikós The ''csikós'' (, singular) is a horse-mounted herdsman of Hungary. The csikós tradition is closely associated with the Hungarian '' puszta'', the temperate grasslands of the Great Hungarian Plain, which encompasses the largest stretche ...

mounted herdsmen.

Name

The adjective has meanings including 'abandoned', 'bare', 'bleak', 'deserted' and 'uninhabited'.

History

From the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

era the landscape of the Alföld or Great Hungarian Plain consisted in large part of arid alkaline grasslands devoid of trees – the puszta. The extent of the puszta over much of the Alföld was drastically reduced by the extensive drainage and irrigation works carried out during the nineteenth century, and it survives principally in the

Hortobágy National Park Hortobágy () is an 800 km2 national park in eastern Hungary, rich with folklore and cultural history. The park, a part of the Alföld (Great Plain), was designated as a national park in 1973 (the first in Hungary), and elected among the W ...

, established in 1972 in eastern Hungary and centred on the village of Hortobágy in Hajdú-Bihar County.

Climate

The climate is continental. Landscape is widely cultivated, the original Puszta landscape now being found only in a few places, for example in

Agriculture

Most of Hungary's vegetable and grain crops are grown on the Great Plain. The region has a sandy soil and is sunny; the city of

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

is often called ''City of Sunshine'' (). In addition to cattle, sheep, and pigs, the region also produces poultry and

foie gras ; (, ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a Domestic duck, duck or Domestic goose, goose. According to French law, ''foie gras'' is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by ''gavage'' (force feeding). ''Foie gras'' i ...

Fauna

Three hundred species of birds are found here.

References

External links

National Park Hortobágy - The Puszta
{{Authority control Eurasian Steppe Geography of Hungary Plains of Hungary Natural regions of Europe