Bottrop is a city in west central Germany, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen). Bottrop is in the Ruhr industrial area, It is next to Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail center. There are factories producing coal-tar derivatives, chemicals, textiles, and machinery. The population is currently 119,655. Bottrop grew as a mining center beginning in the 1860s and was chartered as a city in 1921. In 1975 it was put together with the unification with the neighbor communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left in 1976.