Kocaeli

Kocaeli Province is a province of Turkey and one of only two to not have the same official name as its capital, Izmit, which is thus also sometimes called Kocaeli. The province is the successor of the Ottoman-era Sanjak of Kocaeli. The largest towns in the province are Izmit and Gebze. The traffic code is 41. The province is located at the easternmost end of the Marmara Sea around the Gulf of Izmit. Kocaeli is bordered by the province of Istanbul and the Marmara Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the north, the province of Sakarya to the east, the province of Bursa to the south and the province of Yalova to the southwest. The metropolitan area of Istanbul extends to the Kocaeli-Istanbul provincial border. The size and natural conditions of the Bay of İzmit allow for extensive port facilities, including the Golcuk Naval Base. The province is called the industrial capital of Turkey. Kocaeli has an airport named Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station which is used for military and civilian transport.

Kocaeli was once part of the kingdom of Bithynia (3rd century BCE), and the Carthaginian general Hannibal was buried there (at modern Gebze) in 183 BCE. The area was taken from the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century.Izmit serves as the main outlet for the agricultural (chiefly sugar beets and tobacco), forest, and industrial (mainly cement, paper products, textiles, and petroleum) products of the province.