Balaton [antikvár]

Getting Acquainted with Lake Balaton Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central or West-em Europe. At mean water level its area (the extent of the water's surface) is 595 sq. km. It has the shape of an elongated oblong, stretching from south-west to north-east. It is 77 km long, while its width varies between 3 and 14 km. The length of its shores is about 195 km and can be covered by car in between two-and-a-half and three hours. A third of the way from its eastern end a considerable neck of land juts into the water: the Tihany Peninsula (12 sq. km); here the width of the lake narrows to about one and a half kilometres. For its extent Lake Balaton is extraordinarily shallow. Its average depth is only three metres and even at the tip of Tihany Peninsula, where it is deepest (in the so-called Tihany "well"), its depth does not reach 13 m; thus its bed can be compared to a shallow trough. This peculiarity is particularly favourable for bathers, because the shallow water quickly gets warm. In May it reaches the pleasant, cool temperature of 16 °C, and it retains this temperature in autumn for a long time — till September or October; on the other hand its mean temperature in summer is over 20 °C, and often reaches 25-27 "C. With its calcium, magnesium and hydrocarbonate content the soft, mildly alkaline fresh water of the lake can be considered as mineral water in a highly diluted state. According to medical opinion calcium has a favourable influence on the vegetative equilibrium of the body, while magnesium soothes the nerves. Thus the mineral content of the water also plays a role in the health-giving effect of bathing in Lake Balaton. (The decomposition of calcareous compounds explains a striking feature of the water, its somewhat cloudy colour, though particles of organic matter floating in the water and minute specks of the mud of the bed stirred up by storms also contribute to this.)