Tisza Lake

Tisza

[Hung. ti-so]

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

The Tisza is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in Ukraine, with the White Tisza in the Chornohora and Black Tisza in the Gorgany range, flows partially along the Romanian border, enters Hungary at Tiszabecs, passes through Hungary, and falls into the Danube in central Vojvodina in Serbia. It forms the boundary between the regions of Bačka and Banat. The Tisza drains an area of about 157,186 km². Attila the Hun is said to have been buried under a diverted section of the river Tisza.

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

Tisa;
Тиса (Tysa);
Tisa;
Tisza ();
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). In Croatian language, it is called Tisa (Tisa flows through areas with Croat minority in autonomic province Vojvodina in northern Serbia). It may be referred to as the Theiss (Theiß) in older English references, after the German name for that river.

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" (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.

"Lake Tisza"

In the 1970s 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.

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)