Bottrop is a city in west central Germany, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail center and contains factories producing coal-tar derivatives, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. Bottrop grew as a mining center beginning in the 1860s, was chartered as a city in 1921, and bombed during the Oil Campaign of World War II. In 1975 it unified with the neighbour communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left it in 1976, leading to Kirchhellen becoming a district of Bottrop as Bottrop-Kirchhellen.BoroughsThe total area of the municipal territory is about 101km2. The longest north-south distance is 17km, and from west to east 9km. The highest peak within the city's territory is 78m, the lowest one being 26m above sea level.Bottrop is divided into 3 boroughs, they are: Bottrop-Mitte (Bottrop-Center), Bottrop-Süd (Bottrop South) and Bottrop-Kirchhellen, each one having a borough representation and a borough ruler.These boroughs are further subdivided into city parts, partly named after their traditional name, while the newly built parts are only recently named :Bottrop-Mitte: Eigen, Fuhlenbrock, StadtmitteBottrop-Süd: Batenbrock, Boy, Ebel, Lehmkuhle, Vonderort, Gartenstadt Welheim (Garden city Welheim) and Welheimer Mark Bottrop-Kirchhellen: Ekel, Feldhausen, Grafenwald, Hardinghausen, Holthausen, Im Loh, Kirchhellen, Kuhberg, Overhagen For statistical reasons, Bottrop is also divided into statistical boroughs. They are (with their official numbering)