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 neighbouring communities of Gladbeck and Kirchhellen, but Gladbeck left it in 1976, leading to Kirchhellen becoming a district of Bottrop as Bottrop-Kirchhellen. It is also twinned with Blackpool, England.

Attractions include:

• Alpincenter - the world's longest indoor ski slope
• Tetraeder is a 50-m-tall walkable steel tetrahedron, placed on a 90-m slag heap. It has been the town's landmark since its construction in 1995.
• Movie Park Germany - theme park (in Bottrop-Kirchhellen)
• Schloss Beck is a castle turned into an amusement park (in Bottrop-Kirchhellen).
• Indoor Skydiving Bottrop, a powerful vertical wind tunnel, attracts skydivers from all over Europe.
• Since September 12, 2005, so called Stolpersteine have been placed by artist Gunter Demnig all over the city in remembrance of the people deported and killed by the Nazis.