Great Hungarian Plain
The Pannonian plain is a large plain in central/south-eastern Europe that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea (see below) dried out. The river Danube divides the plain roughly in half.
The plain is roughly bounded by the Carpathian mountains, the Alps, the Dinaric Alps and the Balkan mountains. Because of the long Carpathian border, it can also be referred to as the Carpathian Basin (Kárpát-medence in Hungarian). Another term is Great Hungarian Plain, though it is seldom used.
Although the rain is not plentiful, it usually falls when necessary and the plain is a major agricultural area; it is sometimes said that these fields could feed the whole of Europe.
The plain is divided among Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro. This more or less includes the historical territory of the Hungarian Kingdom.
The peripannonian lands, areas around this plain but not elevated like the surrounding mountains, also spread into Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Large areas of the plain that do not necessarily correspond to national borders include:
- Baranya, Baranja (Croatia, Hungary)
- Bačka, Bacska (Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro)
- Banat (Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro)
- Mačva (Serbia and Montenegro)
- Moslavina (Croatia)
- Podravina (Croatia, around Drava river)
- Pokuplje (Croatia, around Kupa river)
- Posavina (Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, around Sava river)
- Semberija (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Slavonia (Croatia)
- Srem, Srijem (Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia)
- Transylvania (Romania)
- Vojvodina (Serbia and Montenegro)
- several more inside Hungary, cf. list of historic counties of Hungary
Pannonian Sea
The precursor to the present plain was a shallow sea that reached its greatest extent during the Pliocene, when three to four kilometres of sediments were deposited.
See also
