Now let's lay out a map in front of us and try to keep the structure of the city in mind. It is very rare that a city has two parts that are so different from one another. The hilly part in the west is Buda; across the river, twice the size and totally flat, is Pest.
In the Middle Ages the two were independent; in fact it was only in 1873 that they joined with Óbuda to form the modern city. In the 15th century, when Buda was in its heyday, it was considerably larger and more important than Pest. The number of its inhabitants is estimated to have been about 24,000, whereas Pest had only 4,000. (After the Turks were driven out, towards the end of the 17th century, Buda had about 600 and Pest about 300 inhabitants.)
The Danube,
which is strictly speaking the main thoroughfare, divides the capital in two as it flows southwards. At the northern limit of the city the river is almost a kilometre wide, a little further down it encircles two islands. Downriver from Margit (Margaret) Island the Danube narrows considerably. It is at its narrowest at the foot of Gellért Hill, only 230 metres across. Its average water-level here is 96 metres above sea level. The hills of Buda are between 150 and 500 metres in height and, with the exception of Gellért Hill, rise gently. The higher peaks form a semicircle some eight or so kilometres from the city centre. Even Pest is not as flat as it seems to be, since it rises steadily and the X. (Tenth) District, Kobánya, is at the same height as Castle Hill. All this explains why we get such a magnificent view of Pest from the vantage points in Buda. Since the rise on the Pest side also forms a semicircle, Budapest could with some poetic exaggeration be said to compete with Naples or Rio de Janeiro. It is also rare that a large city reflects the characteristic landscapes of the whole country. To the west, beyond Buda, there are the hills and valleys typical of Transdanubia, whereas to the East, not so far from Pest, behind some small hills, the Great Hungarian Plain stretches out perfectly flat. True, to the north there are mountains, though with the highest peak at 1,015 metres they are not very high.
A lot more will be said about the history of the seven bridges over the Danube, and we will also have a close look at them during our walks. Just now, let's find them on the map. In this book they will always be referred to by their Hungarian names. (Remember that 'híd' is the Hungarian for 'bridge'.) There is an island between two of the bridges. The bridge south of the island forms an obtuse angle in the middle. This is Margit híd. Let's take this as our starting point.
Bridges and Boulevards
The historic centre of Buda can still be seen today on Castle Hill; almost nothing has survived of that of Pest. Historic Pest was situated between Lánchíd and Szabadság híd; that is, between the first and the third bridges south of Margit híd. This is what even today we call the city centre or downtown; officially it is the southern part of the V. district. The edge of this district is flanked by the Kiskörút (literally the 'small boulevard'), which consists of József Attila utca, Károly körút, Múzeum körút and Vámház körút.
The main street in the city is Váci utca. Halfway along this street there is the Pest end of ErzsÉbet híd, the first of the two modern bridges in the city. On the Buda side, the road from the bridge turns sharply to the right and starts climbing steeply. It leads straight onto the motorway to Vienna and to Lake Balaton.
From the Pest end of Margit híd runs a semicircular avenue, built after the Parisian pattern. This is called the Nagykörút (literally the 'great boulevard') and reaches the Danube at both ends, joining Margit híd in the north and Petofi híd in the south. 'Grand Boulevard' is actually a nickname - no part of it is actually called that. It is the overall name of Szent István körút, TerÉz körút, ErzsÉbet körút, József körút and Ferenc körút, taken together.
The semicircle continues on the Buda side, although not quite as regularly as in Pest. Thus the circle is completed by Irinyi József utca, Karinthy Frigyes út, Villányi út, Alkotás utca and Margit körút, and there we are again at Margit híd (most of this can be travelled by Trams 4 and 6).
It is more or less true to say that Budapest was built within this circle by the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, with some additional building along main roads running out of town such as Andrássy út, which ends in Városliget in the east. The bridge north of Margit híd, Árpád híd, is the beginning of an outer semicircular ring. Its sections are called Róbert Károly körút, Hungária körút and Könyves Kálmán körút. The latter has just reached the Danube again in the south, when Lágymányosi híd, with its special, oversize mirrors (to light the road evenly) was built, right beside the present rail bridge, DÉli Vasúti híd. Pest had spread more or less this far by the beginning of World War II. The outer ring roads join five major roads that carry traffic from the city towards the suburbs: Váci út, Andrássy út, Rákóczi út which continues in Kerepesi út, Ülloi út and Soroksári út. Metro lines run along all of these except the last.
Budapest, with an area of 525 square kilometres, is the home of less than 2 million people, one in every five citizens of this country. The population, though is steadily diminishing, mainly "thanks" to suburbanisation.
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budapest tourist guide 
