Lake Balaton
| Lake Balaton | |
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Location of Lake Balaton within Hungary
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| Location | Hungary |
| Coordinates | 46°50′N 17°44′E / 46.833°N 17.733°ECoordinates: 46°50′N 17°44′E / 46.833°N 17.733°E |
| Type | Rift lake |
| Primary inflows | Zala River |
| Primary outflows | Sió |
| Catchment area | 5,174 km2 (1,998 sq mi) |
| Basin countries | Hungary |
| Max. length | 77 km (48 mi) |
| Max. width | 14 km (8.7 mi) |
| Surface area | 592 km2 (229 sq mi) |
| Average depth | 3.2 m (10 ft) |
| Max. depth | 12.2 m (40 ft) |
| Water volume | 1.9 km3 (0.46 cu mi) |
| Residence time | 2 years |
| Shore length1 | 236 km (147 mi) |
| Surface elevation | 104.8 m (344 ft) |
| Settlements | Keszthely, Siófok, Balatonfüred (see list) |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Balaton (German: Plattensee) is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and the canalised Sió is the only outflow.
The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns. Balatonfüred and Hévíz developed early as resorts for the wealthy, but it was not until the late 19th century when landowners, ruined by Phylloxera attacking their grape vines, began building summer homes to rent out to the burgeoning middle classes.
In Hungarian, the lake is known simply as Balaton. It was called lacus Pelsodis or Pelso by the Romans. The name is Illyrian, and therefore Indo-European (cf. Czech pleso ‘sinkhole, deep end of a lake’), later replaced by the Slavic *bolto (cf. Serbo-Croatian blȁto, Czech bláto) meaning 'mud, swamp' (from earlier Proto-Slavic boltьno, Slovene: Blatno jezero,Slovak: Blatenské jazero). Slavic prince Pribina began to build in January 846 a fortress as his seat of power and several churches in the region of Lake Balaton, in a territory of modern Zalavár surrounded by forests and swamps along the river Zala. His well fortified castle and capital of Balaton Principality that became known as Blatnohrad or Moosburg ("Swamp Fortress") served as a bulwark both against the Bulgarians and the Moravians.
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Wikipedia