MAGYARORSZÁG	HUNGARY
megye: Somogyi

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Siófok is situated at an elevation of 124 m on the southeastern shore of Lake Balaton in the Somogy county of Hungary. Siófok as the status of a district town and has a population of about 23,000.

The area of Siófok has been inhabited at least since the Neolithic period. Celtic people arrived in the 4th century BC, the Romans conquered the area in the 1st century AD. A document of 1055 of the monastery of Tihany for the first time mentions Fok as the name of a brook (today called Sió) where a bridge allowed people to cross a ford. The oldest document mentioning Fok as a village dates from 1137. In 1552 Fok was conquered by the Turkish invaders. The town became a port on the lake and was fortified. The oldest mention of the modern name, Siófok, dates from 1790. After the liberation from the Turkish rule in 1688 new settlers were called into the area. The 19th century was an important period in the regulation of water-ways. The works of the Sió water-system on the southern shore of Lake Balaton were constructed in 1810–1825. Due to these works the water level of Lake Balaton fell by more than one meter and together with the regulation of the Sió brook a total of 60,000 acres of new land were gained. The Southern Railroad from Buda (today part of Budapest) to Nagykanisza was constructed between 1858 and 1861. During the following years the railroad also had an important part in the attempts to regulate the lake since high water levels of the stepe lake threatened the banks of the railroad. In 1865 Siófok gained the status of a market town. In the following year the first announcement of the Siófok bathing resort was published. The Steamboating Incorporation of Balaton was reorganized by a state loan in 1888. SInce then, the popularity of Siófok increased steadily. Today, Siófok is probably the most-visited bathing resort on Lake Balaton.