Bărăgan Plain

The western limit is a line joining the cities of Buzău, Urziceni, Budești, and Oltenița.Due to lack of forest in the past, the Bărăgan was an important route for the migratory peoples who roamed the area that is south-eastern Romania today.The Bărăgan Steppe was traditionally used as pasture by the shepherds in the Carpathian Mountains (including Transylvania) during transhumance, but was converted to arable land in the second half of the 19th century.[1] The Bărăgan Plain has a harsh climate with hot and dry summers and includes the location where the highest-ever temperature in Romania was recorded: 44.5 °C (112.1 °F), at Ion Sion, in August 1951.In his novel, Ciulinii Bărăganului, the Romanian writer Panait Istrati describes the Bărăgan Plain as follows: No trees grow here, and it's so far from one water well to the next that you can die of thirst half-way.