Balaton [antikvár]

T. Lhere is probably not another part of Hungary that has the attractions of Lake Balaton. This is a magical world of colourful stories and anecdotes, tales and legends, truth and fantasy, dreamy stories and myths conjuring up the past. Like the sea in a single drop, this hundreds of square kilometres of scenic beauty mirrors the past; it is as if the history of the Carpathian basin, and in fact of Central-Eastern Europe, had taken place here alone. Locals lived through the densest of history's turmoils: the Roman legions, the period of mass migrations, the conquerors of the country, the first orders of monks, the periods of the new age which formed Man, the Enlightenment, the Reform age and the wars of independence can be traced precisely in this region. The great eras of our past have left deep marks. Landscape and man have never formed and moulded one another to such an extent as here, in this magic scenery on the slopes of hills running down to the lake and alongside the finely shaped one-time volcanoes that dip their feet into the waters of the lake, where the best wines, the most palatable fish and the finest game come from, together with anecdotes magnified by the reflection of Lake Balaton. In the history of the earth going back 5200 million years the present day structure of the Carpathian basin evolved barely 25 million years ago. As for man, he evolved 2.5 million years ago, and the water of Lake Balaton appeared barely 22,000 years ago. StiO, one can find in this part of the country the most ancient stratum, shale fromthe Ordovician age 600 million years back. Excellent wines grow around Alsóörs and Révfülöp above these strata. From this time on evidence of nearly all geological ages can be found in the vicinity of the lake. Thus the history of the earth has left us with quite a detailed cross-section in this area, and many of the region's deposits have assumed world fame in geological circles. The extraordinary character and the scientific importance of the area were recognised by Lajos Lóczy who organised the Balaton Committee of the Hungarian Geographical Society in 1891. This committee set itself the aim of exploring the region in a scientific manner and setting down its results, which came to be published under the title 'The results of the scientific study of Lake Balaton". Overnight the lake became one of the best knovm and most researched areas in the world at that time. At the start of the Ice age (Pleistocene) - when volcanoes were stül active in the area -tufa rock was deposited and hot water eruptions on the Tihany peninsula and surrounding area built up geyser cones, and deposited fresh-water limestone. Naturally, at this time no man walked the earth. But even if there had been human life at this time, surely it would have escaped the region because of the continuously rumbling, slipping and shaking surface. It was at this time that the Carpathian chain gradually rose from tiny hills into the mountainous range we see today. The water of the ancient Danube and the "Northern Ancient rivers" - the forerunners of the Morva, Vág, Nyitra, Garam, Ipoly - flowed through the territory of Zala, Veszprém and Somogy coimties and flooded into the huge bed of the Ancient Lake, sprawled between the Dráva and the Száva rivers. These waters, which constantly changed their beds, first deposited gravel - for instance, in Csabrendek, Sümeg, Nyírád, outer Somogy, that is in Gyékényes - and later sand. The lines of these deposits were marked by the more or less north-south sinks ("meridional") which can be observed from the Kerka valley to the northern-central mountains. When in about 22,000 BC a basin system perpendicular to the lake (Hahót-Budapest) dropped, the quantity of water which had increased during the Ice age formed a uniform lake in the developed graben system of sinks. Its water level was about 10 metres higher (114 m A.f.) than its present level (104.5 A.f.). Thus a stable Lake Balaton came into existence. Balaton, at its highest water level, covered an area of about 950 sq km, as against the present day 596 sq km. In its one-time bays reed peat deposits show that in the subsequent warmer period the lake lost its inlets through the accumulation of plant life. Its natural outlet was the river Sió, which was completely blocked by water-flora by the Roman times. The one-time pro-consul of Pannónia, Aurelius Victor Sextus (361 A.D.), exag-