Hortobágy

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Drawing well in the Hortobágy Puszta

Hortobágy (IPA: [ɦortobaːɟ]) is a part of Alföld (Great Plain) in eastern Hungary, near Debrecen. It was designated as a national park in 1973 (the first national park in Hungary), and elected among the World Heritage sites in 1999. The Hortobágy is Hungary's largest protected area, and the biggest grassland that remained in Central Europe. Its area is over 800 km².

Hortobágy is similar to a steppe, a grassy plain with cattle, sheep, oxen, horses, tended by herdsmen, and it provides habitat for various different species (342 bird species have been registered to appear). Its emblematic sight is the Nine-holed Bridge, and this is the place for traditional sweep wells. Visitors might find mirage as well here.

Up to now it was known that this alkaline steppe was formed by cutting huge forests in the Middle Ages and then the river control of the Tisza finished this process with changing the soil's structure and pH. However, Hortobágy is much older, alkalinization started ten thousand years ago, when the Tisza found its way through the Great Hungarian Plain and "decapitated" the little rivers sourcing in the Northern Mountains. The real formation was finished by grazing animals, mammoths and wild horses in the Ice Age, and domesticated animals later.