İzmit is a big and a heavily industrialized city in Marmara Region, Turkey, located east of Istanbul, at the very end of the sword-like Gulf of İzmit, the long indentation of the Sea of Marmara towards the east. İzmit is the capital of the Kocaeli Province.
Nicomedes I of Bithynia, the ancient kingdom that encompassed the lands east of the Sea of Marmara, founded his capital across from the site of the Greek colony of Astakos ("lobster", modern Başiskele, a suburb to the south) in 264 BC, naming it after himself, Nicomedia. Under the "Tetrarchy" ("four rulers") system between 293 and 313 CE, Nicomedia became the eastern (and the most senior) capital of the Roman Empire. It kept this status until Constantine the Great moved the imperial capital to nearby Byzantium (renamed to Constantinople, modern Istanbul) in 330. The Ottomans took the city in 1337, calling it at first İznikmid, a variation of its original name, and eventually shortening this to İzmit.
- Clock Tower. An elegant clock tower dating back to 1901. The clock tower now has the added feature of a beautiful waterfall and from the garden by the tower you have a wonderful view of the Gulf of Izmit.
- Kocaeli Archaeology and Ethnograpy Museum. Housed in the former railway station of İzmit, designed by German architect Otto Ritter, and built between 1873 and 1910. After restoration works for redevelopment, which began in 2004, the museum was opened early 2007. There are 1,965 archaeological, 1,549 ethnographic objects, 5,155 coins, a 130-seated conference room and a laboratory. Artifacts from Paleolithic, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman era are partly exhibited in the museum halls and partly open-air in the museum yard. A cafeteria and restaurant, inside a redesigned train of a steam locomotive and two railroad cars, serve the visitors.
- SEKA Paper Museum.
Clock Tower. An elegant clock tower dating back to 1901. The clock tower now has the added feature of a beautiful waterfall and from the garden by the tower you have a wonderful view of the Gulf of Izmit.
Kocaeli Archaeology and Ethnograpy Museum. Housed in the former railway station of İzmit, designed by German architect Otto Ritter, and built between 1873 and 1910. After restoration works for redevelopment, which began in 2004, the museum was opened early 2007. There are 1,965 archaeological, 1,549 ethnographic objects, 5,155 coins, a 130-seated conference room and a laboratory. Artifacts from Paleolithic, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman era are partly exhibited in the museum halls and partly open-air in the museum yard. A cafeteria and restaurant, inside a redesigned train of a steam locomotive and two railroad cars, serve the visitors.
SEKA Paper Museum.
Telephone code of İzmit is 262 (+90 262 when calling from out of Turkey).
Yalova and Bursa to the southwest; Central Anatolia to the southeast; the Black Sea Region to the northeast.