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| Little Hungarian Plain | |
|---|---|
 Landscape in Győr-Moson-Sopron | |
| Location | EasternAustria, WesternHungary, South-westernSlovakia |
| Territory | 8,000 km2 |
| Highest point | ? |
| Lowest point | TheDanube |
| Terrain | plain |
TheLittle Hungarian Plain orLittle Alföld (Hungarian:Kisalföld[ˈkiʃɒlføld],Slovak:Malá dunajská kotlina,German:Kleine Ungarische Tiefebene) is aplain (tectonicbasin) of approximately 8,000 km² in northwesternHungary, south-westernSlovakia (Podunajská nížina –Danubian Lowland), and easternAustria. It is a part of thePannonian plain which covers most parts of Hungary.
Its borders are theCarpathians on the north, theBakony-Vértes Hills in the south, theGerecse Hills in the east, and theLeitha Mountains and the foothills of theAlps in the west. In Hungary, it includes most ofGyőr-Moson-Sopron andVas counties, and the western part ofKomárom-Esztergom andVeszprém.
The plain is roughly cut in half by theDanube which is split up into many arms betweenBratislava andKomárno, forming large islands. Its main tributaries are theVáh, theRába, theRábca and theMarcal rivers.
Smaller microregions of the Little Alföld areHanság,Seewinkel,Neusiedl Basin,Rábaköz,Szigetköz,Marcal Basin,Moson Plain,Komárom-Esztergom Plain andŽitný ostrov.
The neighbouring regions ofKemeneshát,Sopron-Vas Plain andSteirisches Hügelland are sometimes classified as belonging to the Little Alföld, but Hungarian and Austrian geographers use the term in a more narrow meaning.
The plain has been an important area of agriculture since the Neolithic Age. The southern part of it belonged to the Roman province ofPannonia between the 1st and 5th centuries and later was inhabited byGermanic andSlavic peoples and since about 900 also byHungarians. Since about 1000, the region became part of theKingdom of Hungary. After World War I the Little Alföld was divided between Hungary,Czechoslovakia and Austria. In the 1990s Slovakia built alarge dam and power plant atGabčíkovo.
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 ofCroats in the tri-state border region. Important cities in the region areGyőr (HU),Komárom (HU),Komárno (SK),Dunajská Streda (SK),Nové Zámky (SK), andMosonmagyaróvár (HU).
| West-Hungarian Borderland |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Little Hungarian Plain | ||
| Transdanubia | ||
| Transdanubian Mountains | ||
| Transdanubian Hills | ||
| North Hungarian Mountains | ||
| Great Hungarian Plain | ||