Zonguldak () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and the capital of

Zonguldak Province Zonguldak Province ( tr, ) is a province along the western Black Sea coast region of Turkey. The province is 3.481 km in size and has a population of 619,703. Its adjacent provinces are Düzce to the southwest, Bolu to the south, Karabük t ...

in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

region of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. It was established in 1849 as a port town for the nearby coal mines in Ereğli and the coal trade remains its main economic activity. According to the 2009 census, Zonguldak has a population of 108,792. The current mayor is Ömer Selim Alan, representing the AKP.

Etymology

There are several different theories concerning the origin of the city's name: * That it comes from ''Zone Geul-Dagh'', the name given to the area by French and

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

mining companies from French "zone" and a French spelling of Turkish Göldağı ('Lake Mountain'), the highest mountain in the vicinity of the

Devrek Devrek is a town and district in Zonguldak Province in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It was founded as Hamidiye, in the sanjak of Bolu. Devrek was incorporated into the Zonguldak Province on May 14, 1920. It is divided into five quarters, thr ...

district. * That the name came from Turkish which means "swamp", or . * That the name may derive from the name of the nearby ancient settlement of

Sandaraca Sandaraca or Sandarake ( grc, Σανδαράκη) was a coastal town of ancient Bithynia, at a distance of 90 stadia to the east of the river Oxines. Its site is located near Zonguldak Zonguldak () is a city and the capital of Zonguldak Provinc ...

or Sandarake (in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

Σανδαράκη). * That the name may have come from "jungle" (which the French entrepreneurs called the area due to its uneven wooded geography) plus Turkish 'mountain'. In a 1920 report, the British Foreign Office spelled Zonguldak ''Zunguldak''.

History

The port city of Zonguldak suffered a heavy bombardment by the Russians during World War I, according to the caption of a

Lubok A ''lubok'' (plural ''lubki'', Cyrillic: russian: лубо́к, лубо́чная картинка) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Lubki ...

popular print. As of 1920, the port was under the control of the Heraclea Coal Company. The northern part of the bay featured a man-made harbor, for steamship use. At that time, they had two cranes which distributed

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

to exporting vessels.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

, for a long time Zonguldak was considered to have an oceanic climate (''Cfb''), with its warmest month being well below the 22 °C threshold, yet in recent decades

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

has been contributing to its classification in slowly turning

humid subtropical A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(''Cfa'') and therefore the city center on the immediate coastline is currently classified as borderline oceanic-humid subtropical. If this trend continues, coastal Zonguldak will soon be classified as purely humid subtropical. Summers are warm, the average temperature is around 22.5 °C in July and August. Winters are cool, the average temperature is around 6 °C in January and February. Precipitation is frequent, while it is generally heaviest in autumn and early winter, lightest (although still frequent) in spring. The water temperature is cool to mild and fluctuates between 8° C and 20 °C throughout the year.

Health

Because of coal there is a lot of lung disease.

Economy

Jobs in

coal in Turkey Coal supplies over a quarter of Turkey's primary energy. The heavily subsidised coal industry generates over a third of the country's electricity and emits a third of Turkey's greenhouse gases. Most coal mined in Turkey is lignite (brown ...

are being lost and in 2020 the

EBRD The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially foc ...

proposed a just transition.

Transportation

The city is the terminus of a railway line to

Irmak Irmak is a Unisex Turkish given name. In Turkish, "Irmak" means "river". People Given name * Irmak Arkadaşlar, a Turkish contestant in the north team of Survivor: Büyük Macera. * Irmak Atuk, a Turkish model and titleholder of Best Model of ...

, with the terminating station Zonguldak Railway Station built in 1937.

International relations

Twin towns — sister cities

Zonguldak is twinned with: * Brindisi, Apulia,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Castrop-Rauxel Castrop-Rauxel (), often simply referred to as Castrop by locals, is a former coal mining city in the eastern part of the Ruhr Area in Germany. Geography Castrop-Rauxel is located in Germany between Dortmund to the southeast, Bochum to the sou ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

* Kherson, Kherson Oblast,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Monfalcone Monfalcone (; Bisiacco: ; fur, Monfalcon; sl, Tržič; archaic german: Falkenberg) is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Gorizia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means 'falcon mountain ...

Friuli Venezia Giulia (man), it, Friulana (woman), it, Giuliano (man), it, Giuliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_t ...

Notable people

Ergün Penbe - Turkish former footballer

Murat Boz Murat Boz (born 7 March 1980) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and actor. Boz began his solo career by releasing his first single, " Aşkı Bulamam Ben", in 2006. In the following year his first studio album titled ''Maximum'' (2007) was releas ...

- Turkish singer-songwriter and actor Nilgün Efes - Turkish entrepreneur and journalist