HAJD-BIHAR

megye (county), eastern Hungary. It occupies an area of 2,398 square miles (6,212 square km) in the Tiszntl, a part of the Great Hungarian Plain, and consists mainly of sandy soils where most of the natural vegetation cover has been depleted. Summers are hot and winters very cold. Debrecen (q.v.), the megye seat, but administratively independent, with county rank of its own, is at the southwestern edge of the sandy plain. In the 19th century the Tisza River was regulated through the construction of the Tiszalk Dam and the 60-mile (100-kilometre) Main Canal, which supplies water to the Hortobgy (q.v.) steppe and the Hajdsg, which is a low tableland covered by fertile black soil. Rice, wheat, corn (maize), tobacco, sunflowers, and lentils all flourish in the county wherever recurring drought has been eliminated by irrigation projects. The Hortobgy steppe is associated with the legendary Hungarian herdsmen and cowboys (gulys). Hajdszoboszl, a spa town with curative mineral waters, lies in the centre of a natural gas field. Nyrbtor has two historic churches built in the 1480s, one of which has a large arcaded timber belfry. Pop. (1986 est.) 551,000.