Sweep well

Typical landscape elements of Hortobagy are the draw wells. They were mostly seen in the backyards of houses, but there were many for shared use in villages and in their outskirts. In the more water consumpting grazing lands there were even 2, 3 or 4 draws in a bigger well pit.

Draw wells used to be used for communication, too. By setting the parts of the draw in different positions people could message to one another that it was time to eat or drink the animals or to warn brigands that police officers were around. Draw wells were also used as gallows. Whenever a white dress was hanging on it, everyone knew that a woman visited the shepherd.