The Little Hungarian Plain or Little Alföld ( Hungarian: ''Kisalföld'', Slovak: ''Malá dunajská kotlina'',

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''Kleine Ungarische Tiefebene'') is a

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

(tectonic basin) of approximately 8,000 km² in northwestern

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, south-western

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

(''Podunajská nížina'' –

Danubian Lowland ::''The Serbian lowland is treated under Danube Plain (Serbia)'' The Danubian Lowland or Danube Lowland () is the name of the part of Little Alföld (Slovak: ''Malá dunajská kotlina'') situated in Slovakia, located between the Danube, the Lit ...

), and eastern

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. It is a part of the

Pannonian plain The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only the ...

which covers most parts of Hungary.

Geography

Its borders are the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretche ...

on the north, the

Bakony Bakony () is a mountainous region in Transdanubia, Hungary. It forms the largest part of the Transdanubian Mountains. It is located north of Lake Balaton and lies almost entirely in Veszprém county. The Bakony is divided into the Northern an ...

- Vértes Hills in the south, the Gerecse Hills in the east, and the

Leitha Mountains The Leitha Mountains or, less frequently, Leitha Hills (german: Leithagebirge; hu, Lajta-hegység), are a range of hills in Austria lying on the boundary between Lower Austria and Burgenland. The range is an offshoot of the Alps and forms a conn ...

and the foothills of the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

in the west. In Hungary, it includes most of Győr-Moson-Sopron and Vas counties, and the western part of Komárom-Esztergom and Veszprém. The plain is roughly cut in half by the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

which is split up into many arms between

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

and Komárno, forming large islands. Its main tributaries are the

Váh The Váh (; german: Waag, ; hu, Vág; pl, WagWag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów ...

, the Rába, the

Rábca The Rabnitz ( hu, Répce, Rábca) is a river in eastern Austria and northwestern Hungary. Its basin area is . The Rabnitz is formed at the confluence of its two headstreams Spratzbach and Thalbach near Hollenthon in Lower Austria. It flows towar ...

and the Marcal rivers. Smaller microregions of the Little Alföld are Hanság, Seewinkel, Neusiedl Basin, Rábaköz,

Szigetköz The Szigetköz (literally "island alley"; german: Kleine Schüttinsel, lit=Little Schütt Island; sk, Malý Žitný ostrov, lit=Little Rye Island) is an island on the Danube in Western Hungary, part of the Little Hungarian Plain. It is the larg ...

, Marcal Basin, Moson Plain, Komárom-Esztergom Plain and

Žitný ostrov Žitný ostrov (Rye Island), also called Veľký Žitný ostrov (Great Rye Island), (german: Große Schüttinsel or Great Schütt Island, hu, Csallóköz) to differentiate it from Malý Žitný ostrov (Small Rye Island) (german: Kleine Schüttins ...

. The neighbouring regions of Kemeneshát, Sopron-Vas Plain and Steirisches Hügelland are sometimes classified as belonging to the Little Alföld, but Hungarian and Austrian geographers use the term in a more narrow meaning.

History

The plain has been an important area of agriculture since the Neolithic Age. The southern part of it belonged to the Roman province of

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now west ...

between the 1st and 5th centuries and later was inhabited by Germanic and

Slavic people Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

s and since about 900 also by

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the ...

. Since about 1000, the region became part of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...

. After World War I the Little Alföld was divided between Hungary,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and Austria. In the 1990s Slovakia built a large dam and power plant at

Gabčíkovo Gabčíkovo ( hu, Bős, ) is a town and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District, in the Trnava Region of southwestern Slovakia. It has 5,232 inhabitants of whom approximately 80% are Hungarians. After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovak ...

Population

Country borders don't closely follow linguistic boundaries, especially in the case of the northern part of the plain where Hungarians are a majority in the two southernmost districts Dunajská Streda and Komárno and a minority in the remaining districts. There are also smaller groups of

Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic ...

in the tri-state border region. Important cities in the region are

Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia region, and – halfway between Budapest and Vienna – situated on one of ...

(HU), Komárom (HU), Komárno (SK),

Dunajská Streda Dunajská Streda (; hu, Dunaszerdahely; german: Niedermarkt; he, דונהסרדהיי) is a town located in southern Slovakia ( Trnavský kraj). Dunajská Streda is the most culturally significant town in the Žitný ostrov area. The town has a p ...

(SK), Nové Zámky (SK), and

Mosonmagyaróvár Mosonmagyaróvár (; german: Wieselburg-Ungarisch Altenburg; also known by other alternative names) is a town in Győr-Moson-Sopron County in northwestern Hungary. It lies close to both the Austrian and Slovakian borders and has a populatio ...

(HU).

Geography

History

Population

See also