The Great Plain and Puszta are the setting for much of Hungarian folklore and literature. These feature images of the brave cowboy (csikós) astride five horses racing across a lonely track of barren land. But these flatlands on both sides of the Tisza River are actually quite diverse in landscape, displaying sand drifts in one area and plum orchards in another. Of course there are still plenty of the traditional grassy prairies, shepherds tending ther flocks - and horseback riding. Some areas are preserved as national parks, including Hortobágy and Ópusztaszer, where the Magyars established Hungary 1,100 years ago.

The word puszta means: empty, bare, grassy plain. The Hungarian puszta, the distant relative of the prairies, pampa and steppes, is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Europe and a must in any tour of the country. Hungary is divided by two big rivers. The Danube cuts the country in two, into an eastern half and a western half. The eastern half is further divided by the Tisza River. The plain that lies in this region is called the Alföld, the Great Hungarian Plain. The country's largest cultivated lands are found here: wheat fields stretching as far as the eye can see and vast orchards alternate with areas of puszta used for grazing.

This region owes its distinctive atmosphere partly to the geographical endowments and partly to the unique historical development of the population, radically differing from that of Western Europe.

The Great Plain has inspired countless artists to record their experiences in paint and music. The famous outlaw Sándor Rózsa lived his adventurous life here: the legends portray him as a noble-spirited brigand who robbed the rich to help the poor.

The typical Hungarian rural settlement, the “tanya” developed here: many foreign ethnographers see in it the forerunner of the American farm.

The national landscape protection areas of the Great Plain hide natural treasures of inestimable value. The rich flora and fauna include many rare animals and plants found only here. The fortunate visitor can see the mirage, known as “délibáb”, a rare natural phenomenon, when the image of small villages in the distance floats upside down over the horizon. Scattered farms with their dazzling white walls and typical sweep-pole wells attract the eye: inns thatched with reeds, galloping herds of horses and peacefully grazing cattle dot the horizon. This is a land where imagination and reality blend together. Where the sky and the earth meet...

Hortobágy is home to Europe's largest expanse of grassland prairies (the Puszta), as well as salt lakes and marshes with treasures to be seen nowhere else. 'The prairies billow like the sea', as the Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi, an enthusiastic admirer of the prairies and the river Tisza, put it. The Tisza is the lifeblood of this sandy country as well as the source of an inexhaustible supply of fish, the principal ingredient of the delicious Hungarian fish soup. In this region the sun shines more hours than any other region in the country, and abundantly flowing thermal water helps health-seekers to recuperate.

The towns of the Great Plain are distributed fairly evenly over the map. Most of them are located at a distance of around 27 kilometres apart. The origins of this unique settlement structure can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Reports by contemporary travellers note that merchants and travellers covered a distance of three miles a day (the mediaeval Hungarian mile was 9 kilometres) and always spent the night in a protected place. These became the towns where markets were held, churches built and tolls collected.

Before 1850 a single state highway crossed the Great Plain from Budapest to Temesvár and Nagyszeben, today both in Romania. According to contemporary records, the road was more than a kilometre wide in places. To avoid patches of deep mud and the dust in summer, travellers skirted these spots and since there were scarcely any rocks or trees on the plain to block their way, such places gradually widened into a real "superstrada", much like the tracks that once crossed the American prairies.