The UNESCO World Heritage Committee included this sprawling area of thousands of hectares on its list in 1999. Hungary’s first national park was created on these 51,000 hectares in 1973. Today, its area spans 82,000 hectares, making the National Park the country’s largest contiguous conservation area. In addition to the saline grasslands, pastures, loess steppes, floodplain forests and groves, it is made up of swamps and lakes, which are perfect hiding places for endangered ancient Hungarian animal species, while the flora of the landscape is also extremely diverse. If you’d like to learn about the life of Hungarian shepherds, head to the Hortobágy National Park, just over 30 kilometres from Debrecen.