MAKO

city, surrounded by (but administratively separate from) Mak district, Csongrd megye (county), southeastern Hungary. It is situated near the northern bank of the Maros River and close to the Romanian frontier. It is named after a soldier on whom the village was bestowed by King Endre II in the 13th century. The settlement was almost completely destroyed twice, once by the Turks and later by the flooding of the Maros River in 1821. The city today is a traditional market centre surrounded by fertile farmland, known for its production of onions (exported in large quantities ever since the end of the 19th century), high grain yield, and livestock. The city has long-established milling industries and more recent textile mills and an agricultural machinery factory. Most of the buildings are in a Neo-classical style, and there are thermal baths in the centre of the city. It is a junction of secondary and minor roads. The journalist Joseph Pulitzer (18471911) was born in Mak. Pop. (1983 est.) 30,000.