Kiskőrös (, Kishkerish, , ) is a town in Bács-Kiskun, Hungary. Kiskőrös is situated between the Danube and Tisza rivers at around . Sándor Petőfi, the national poet of Hungary, was born here. Geography Kiskőrös is the sixth biggest city in Bács-Kiskun county by population. It is located in the center of the county, east from the river Danube and south of Budapest. About north of the town lies the nature reserve area (since 1974) of Szücsi Forest as part of the Kiskunság National Park. The flora includes close to 300 protected plant species, one of them a special species of orchid, which blossoms here in April. Moreover, there are 98 registered, protected bird species. Many of them are songbirds that coexist with birds of prey like kestrels, sparrow-hawks and hobbies. Climate Kiskőrös has a continental climate combined with a high number of yearly sunlight. The hours of annual sunlight is over 2,000 hours. History Kiskőrös has been populated since the Stone Age. In the first half of the second millennium before Christ it was populated by the Vatya-culture which was developed around the central area of the Danube basin between 2000 and 1500/1400 BC. Archeologists unearthed 161 metal objects - out of them 11 made of gold - in the vicinity of Kiskőrös in 2016, representing the biggest ever Middle Bronze Age found - both quantity and quality - in the areas between the Danube and Tisza (in Hungarian: Duna-Tisza köze). In addition to bronze and gold jewellery, daggers, spears, axes as well as goldsmith tools were found. Celtic coins from the Late Iron Age (4th century B.C.) have also been found. In the first century Transdanubia (i.e. Pannonia) was invaded by the Romans and its population ran away and settled in the area. Archaeological evidence suggests that Scythian-Sarmatian were settled here, to the border region, to protect the "limes", who continued to be present up to the 5th century AD. Seven sarmata cemeteries have been found so far within the permiaters of Kiskőrös. In the graves of a Jazig-Sarmatian cemetery a necklace of pearls in gold setting and other rare polished jewellery were found. In the 1930s five Avar villages and seven cemeteries have been discovered. The archeological findings strongly suggest a strong connection between the Sarmatians living in the area and the Roman provinces. Only a few relics were have been found from the Hun-period (420-454). Nine