Lake Fehér, Protected wetland lake in Csongrád-Csanád County, Hungary.
Lake Fehér is a 14 km² saltwater lake north of Szeged, Hungary's largest salt lake, within the Pusztaszer Landscape Protection Area of Kiskunság National Park. Its shallow, salty water is cloudy from colloidal lime salts, and greyish-white carbonate lime silt accumulates on the bed. The lake now forms part of a fishpond system of 16 ponds, 83 wintering basins, 18 watering places and 2 distribution ponds, about 1.25 m deep.
Lake Fehér was first recorded in a charter in 1075, and the Tisza flooded the area regularly until the early 19th century. From 1905 plans turned part of the salt lake into fishponds; the Algyő main canal, finished in 1932, allowed filling and draining, and the fish farm opened in 1933 on the southern 520 hectares. The Majsai canal, built in 1943, cut the lake in two, and the present fishpond system dates from 1961.
The lake is named Fehér, meaning white, for the salt that blooms on its dried bed. It is the setting and inspiration of Móra Ferenc's writing Fehértó. Today the area is a fish farm and a protected reserve, and visitors can watch cranes, wild geese and ducks during migration.
The lake lies in the Pusztaszer Landscape Protection Area, part of Kiskunság National Park, north of Szeged. It is a strictly protected area that can be visited only with a guide. The northern and north-northwestern part preserves its original salt-lake state, while the rest is managed as a fishpond system.
The lakebed is covered with greyish-white carbonate lime silt; when it dries out, soda salt effloresces on the surface. The shallow, salty water is cloudy from colloidal lime salts. The lake is Hungary's largest saltwater lake, covering 14 km².
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