Balaton-felvidék

Balaton Uplands National Park was created in 1997 on the northern shore of Lake Balaton, the largest lake in central Europe, and protects some 570 km² spread across several units.

Its most characteristic feature are the tanúhegyek, or witness hills: cones and mesas of volcanic origin that rise in isolation above the plain and are the remains of volcanism active between two and eight million years ago, later sculpted by erosion. Some preserve columnar basalt formations and fossil geysers, and vines have been grown on their sunny slopes since Roman times. The Tihany peninsula, with its explosion craters and geyserite cones, is the most singular geological complex and was Hungary's first protected area, declared in 1952.

The park also includes the Kis-Balaton, or Little Balaton, an extensive wetland at the mouth of the river Zala that was drained in the nineteenth century and has been gradually restored since the 1980s so that it can once again filter nutrients before they reach the lake. Today it is one of the most important wetlands in Hungary for waterbirds, with large concentrations of geese, herons and spoonbills.