Gulf of İzmit (), also referred to as İzmit Bay, is a bay at the easternmost edge of the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

, in

Kocaeli Province Kocaeli Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey and one of only three not to have the same official name as its capital, İzmit, which is thus also sometim ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. The gulf takes its name from the city of

İzmit İzmit () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, 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 ...

. Other cities and towns around the bay are Gebze, Körfez, Gölcük, and Altınova. In the east–west direction, it extends for a length of about , while in the north–south direction its width varies from at the narrowest spots to about at its widest. The İzmit Bay Bridge is a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

that bridges the gulf. The North Anatolian Fault Zone, the most prominent

active fault An active fault is a fault that is likely to become the source of another earthquake sometime in the future. Geologists commonly consider faults to be active if there has been movement observed or evidence of seismic activity during the last 10,0 ...

in Turkey and the source of numerous large

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

s throughout history, passes through the Gulf of İzmit.

Etymology

İzmit’s ancient names were Gulf of Astacus, Sinus Astacenus (), Olbianus Sinus (), and Gulf of

Nicomedia Nicomedia (; , ''Nikomedeia''; modern İzmit) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city located in what is now Turkey. In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire (chosen by the emperor Diocletian who rul ...

. It took the names Gulf of Astacus and Sinus Astacenus from the city Astacus.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, §5.43.1
/ref>

References

External links

Motorway over the Gulf
Izmit Sea of Marmara {{Turkey-geo-stub

Etymology

See also

References

External links