Alföld, Nagy-Alföld (Great Hungarian Plain): a flat, fertile steppeland broken up with floodplain groves and swamps in the central part of the Carpathian Basin. The part of the plain between the Danube and the Tisza rivers is generally distinguished from the region east of the Tisza, called the Tiszántúl (qq.v.). Population density and the composition of the region's population have varied greatly over the centuries, and have been as much influenced by changes in its physical geography (due to irrigation and swamp drainage projects, for instance) as the vicissitudes of history. The Alföld is suited for grain farming and animal husbandry (with the tanya, an isolated farmstead, as the typical settlement type), as well as market gardening (fruit, grapes, root crops and leafy vegetables, onions, peppers, and tobacco are all grown).