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Hungary (in Hungarian, Magyarország), republic, in central Europe, bordered on the north by Slovakia; on the north-east by Ukraine; on the east by Romania; on the south by Serbia (part of Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia, and Slovenia; and on the west by Austria. The total area of Hungary is 93,030 sq km (35,919 sq mi). Hungary is somewhat oval in shape, with an extreme length from east to west of about 528 km (328 mi) and a maximum width from north to south of about 267 km (166 mi). The capital and largest city is Budapest.
Hungary is predominantly flat. The River Danube, which forms part of the Slovakian-Hungarian border from near Bratislava to near Esztergom, turns abruptly south, dividing Hungary into two general regions. A low, rolling plain known as the Great Hungarian Plain or the Great Alföld covers most of the region east of the Danube extending east to Romania and south to Serbia. Highlands along the northern border of the country extend eastward from the gorge of the Danube at Esztergom and include the Bükk and Mátra mountains. Mount Kékes (1,015 m/3,330 ft), in the Mátra Mountains, is the highest peak in Hungary. The area west of the Danube, known as Transdanubia, presents a variety of land forms. In the south rise the isolated Mecsek Mountains. In the north are the Bakony Mountains, which overlook Lake Balaton, the largest freshwater lake in central Europe. The Little Alföld, or Little Plain, in the extreme north-western section of Hungary, extends into southern Slovakia.
Hungary has a relatively dry continental climate, with cold winters and warm summers. Average temperatures range from -1.1° C (30° F) in January to 21.1° C (70° F) in July. Rainfall is heaviest in early summer, and the average amount decreases from 787 mm (31 in) along the western frontier to 508 mm (20 in) in the east.
The main resource of Hungary is the rich black soil of its farmlands. The alluvial soils of the Great Hungarian Plain are highly fertile, although inferior to the black earth in the south-eastern and southern plain that extends into Romania and Serbia and Croatia. Soils in the northern highland river basins are generally fertile, but in much of Hungary the soil is of a loose type, called loess, or sandy. The country has some deposits of bauxite, coal, oil, natural gas, manganese, uranium, lignite, and iron ore. Reserves of most minerals are small, however, and the iron ore and hard coal are of low quality.
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