Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, is the largest city in Türkiye and the country’s economic, cultural and historic centre. The town straddles the Bosporus strait and lies in Europe and Asia, with over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the people of Türkiye. Istanbul is the most populous city in Europe and the world’s fifteenth-largest city.

Ankara is Turkiye’s capital. It was previously known as Ancyra or Angora. The city is located in central Anatolia and has a population of over 4.5 million in its urban centre. It also has more than 5.6 million residents in Ankara Province. This makes it Turkiye’s second-largest municipality after Istanbul.

The city was the capital of the ancient Celtic state Galatia (280-64 BC) and later the Roman province with an identical name (25 BC-7th Century). It is also home to numerous ancient Hattian, Hittite and Lydian, Phrygian and Galatian archaeological sites. First, the Anatolia Eyalet Capital was established by the Ottomans in 1393. Later, the Angora Vilayet (1867-1922) followed. Ankara’s historical centre is a rocky hill that rises 150m (500ft) above the Ankara River, a tributary to the Sakarya River.

Izmir, the capital of Anatolia’s metropolitan region in the western extremity of Anatolia (the capital of the same province), is the third most populous city. Turkey’s third-largest city after Istanbul and Ankara and the second-largest urban agglomeration along the Aegean Sea after Athens.

The metro area’s built-up population was 3,209,179 people. It covered 9 of 11 urban districts (all except Urla and Guzelbahce, still not agglomerated) and Menemen and Menderes, which are largely conurbation. It runs along the Gulf of Izmir’s outlying waters, inland to the west, across the Gediz Delta to the east, along an alluvial plateau formed by several small streams to the south, and along the coast to the east.

Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Türkiye and the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia’s southwest coast, bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Aegean region, with over one million people in its metropolitan area.

Bursa is a city in northwestern Türkiye and the administrative centre of Bursa Province. Bursa is the fourth-most populous city in Türkiye and the second-most populous in the Marmara Region, one of the country’s industrial centres. Most of the automotive production in Turkey takes place in the city of Bursa.

As of 2019, Bursa was home to around 3,056,120 inhabitants, 2,161,990 of whom lived in the three city urban districts plus Gurus and Kestel, largely conurbation.