Lake Tisza, the second largest lake and the largest artificial lake of Hungary, is located on the river Tisza, on the northern part of Alföld. On its surface, which is 127 square kilometres, open water surfaces, islands, inlets and shallow canals vary mosaically. It is 27 kilometres long and its average depth is 1.3 metres, although its deepest point is 17 metres. Its islands are covering 43 square kilometres of land.

Kisköre power plant was built in 1973 together with the dam to control floods of Tisza and to ensure better water supply for Alföld. Its filling was finished in the 1990’s. By now the lake has had its own ecology, there is even a bird reservation operating within. Since 1999 it has been a part of UNESCO World Heritage as an exhibition territory of Hortobágy National Park.

Wild water world of Lake Tisza can be discovered by foot, on bike, on horseback and by boat. The Bird Reservation of Lake Tisza is a protected area, so it can only be visited accompanied by a guide. The Eco Centre of Lake Tisza was opened in 2012 in Poroszló, which shows natural values, flora and fauna of Tisza valley in an interactive way.

Present face of Lake Tisza is a result of a longer process as a consequence of which water legs differing significantly in hydrological, hydro-biological characteristics have been formed. From the ecological point of view Lake Tisza, regarded as a whole, can be categorized into shallow lake type water tanks. There are marshlands, shallow lakes, large, medium sized and small water streams within its territory.

As an effect of damming bed characteristics have significantly changed. There is a great amount of recharge and bed material has changed as well. Flooded forests have been dying out through the decades, and there are no traces of them by now. The last representatives of the trees were swallowed by the vast water surface for ever in the middle of the 1990’s.