Tisza

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"Tisa" redirects here. For other uses, see Tisa (disambiguation) and Tisza (disambiguation).

Tisza
The Tisza in Szeged, Hungary
Origin	Ukraine, Eastern Carpathians
Mouth	Danube River
Basin countries	Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia
Length	1,358 km (844 mi)
Source elevation	2,020 m
Avg. discharge
Basin area	157,000 km²

The Tisza or Tisa is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in Ukraine and passes through Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia. It forms the boundary between the regions of Bačka and Banat and flows into the Danube in central Vojvodina in Serbia. The Tisza drains an area of about 157,186 km².

Names for the river in the countries it flows through are:

Romanian: Tisa
Ukrainian: Тиса (Tysa)
Slovak: Tisa
Hungarian: Tisza, IPA pronunciation: [ˈtisa]
Serbian: Тиса (Tisa)

The river was known as the Tisia in antiquity, and Latin names for it included Tissus, Tisia, Pathissus (Pliny, Naturalis historia, 4.25). It may be referred to as the Theiss (German: Theiß) in older English references.

1 Regulation of the Tisza
2 "Lake Tisza"
3 Navigation
4 Tributaries and sub-tributaries
5 External links

[edit] Regulation of the Tisza

The length of the Tisza in Hungary used to be 1419 km. It flowed through the Great Hungarian Plain, which is one of the largest flat areas in central Europe. Since plains can cause a river to flow very slowly, the Tisza used to follow a path with many curves and turns, which led to many large floods in the area.

After several small-scale attempts, István Széchenyi organised the "control of the Tisza" (Hungarian: a Tisza szabályozása) which started on August 27, 1846 and substantially ended in 1880. The new length of the river in Hungary was 966 km, with 589 km of "dead channels" and 136 km of new riverbed.

The resultant length of the flood-protected river comprises 2,940 km (out of 4,220 km of all Hungarian protected rivers) which forms one of the largest flood protection systems in Europe; larger than the Netherlands' 1,500 km, the Po River's 1,400 km, or the Loire Valley's 480 km.

[edit] "Lake Tisza"

In the 1980s the building of the Kisköre Reservoir started with the purpose of helping to control floods as well as storing water for drought seasons. It turned out, however, that the resulting Lake Tisza became one of the most popular tourist destinations in Hungary, since it had similar features to Lake Balaton at drastically cheaper prices and it was not crowded.

[edit] Navigation

The Tisza is navigable over much of its course. The river opened up for international navigation only recently; before, Hungary distinguished "national rivers" and "international rivers", indicating whether non-Hungarian vessels were allowed or not. After Hungary joined the European Union, this distinction was lifted and vessels were allowed on the Tisza.

Conditions of navigation differ with the circumstances: when the river is in flood, it is often unnavigable, just as it is at times of extreme drought. (Source: NoorderSoft Waterway Database)