İzmit

Country: Turkey · 376,056 inhabitants

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Wikivoyage

İzmit is an industrial city in the Eastern Marmara region of Turkey, just over 100 km east of Istanbul. It's at the tip of the sword-like Gulf of İzmit, a long inlet of the Sea of Marmara, and in 2021 had a population of 367,990. İzmit is the capital of the province and metropolis of Kocaeli.

Wikipedia

İzmit (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈizmit]) is a municipality and the capital district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056 (2022). The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about 100 km (62 mi) east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. Kocaeli Province (including rural areas) had a population of 2,079,072 inhabitants in 2022, of whom approximately 1.2 million lived in the largely urban İzmit City metro area made up of Kartepe, Başiskele, Körfez, Gölcük, Derince and Sapanca (in Sakarya Province). Similar to Istanbul, the area of İzmit is coterminous with its province. It is also the most populated of any city or town in Turkey whose name isn't shared with the province it is located in.

İzmit was known as Nicomedia and Ólbia in antiquity, and was the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire between 286 and 324, during the Tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian. Following Constantine the Great's victory over co-emperor Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in 324, Nicomedia served as an interim capital city for Constantine between 324 and 330. During the Ottoman Empire, İzmit was the capital of the Sanjak of Kocaeli. In the present day, Istanbul-İzmit area is one of the main industrial regions in Turkey.