Turkey's 81 provinces and plate codes: easy ways to learn them and a Turkey Map Master guide

Could you point to all 81 provinces of Turkey on a map? Do you know which province a car with a 46 plate comes from, or why Kırıkkale is number 71? Most people learn the provinces at school and forget half of them soon after. This guide explains the simple logic behind Turkish licence plate codes, lists every province by region, shares memory techniques that actually stick and shows how to practise them in Turkey Map Master.

Plate codes are not random: two rules

Every Turkish number plate begins with a two-digit province code. The codes follow two simple rules, and once you know them you can guess most plates without memorising anything.

Rule 1: 01–67 are alphabetical

When the codes were handed out, Turkey had 67 provinces. They were sorted alphabetically by the names they had at the time and numbered from 01 to 67. That is why the list starts with 01 Adana, 02 Adıyaman and 03 Afyon(karahisar) and ends with 67 Zonguldak.

The three "surprises" in the list all come from old names:

• 33 Mersin: the province used to be called İçel, which is why it sits between Isparta (32) and İstanbul (34).
• 46 Kahramanmaraş: it was listed as Maraş, between Manisa (45) and Mardin (47).
• 63 Şanlıurfa: back then it was simply Urfa, between Tunceli (62) and Uşak (64).

Splitting the codes into letter groups makes them much easier to remember:

• 01–09, the A group: Adana, Adıyaman, Afyon, Ağrı, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Artvin, Aydın.
• 10–16, the B group: Balıkesir, Bilecik, Bingöl, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa.
• 17–19, the Ç group: Çanakkale, Çankırı, Çorum.
• 22–26, the E group: Edirne, Elazığ, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskişehir.
• 36–43, the K group: Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kırklareli, Kırşehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kütahya.
• 44–49, the M group: Malatya, Manisa, Maraş, Mardin, Muğla, Muş.
• 54–58, the S group: Sakarya, Samsun, Siirt, Sinop, Sivas.
• 59–62, the T group: Tekirdağ, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli.

Rule 2: 68–81 follow the order of creation

From 1989 onwards new provinces were created, and they received codes from 68 upwards in the order they were founded. These 14 are Turkey's "young provinces":

Group them by year to remember them: four in 1989 (68–71), two in 1990 (72–73), one in 1991 (74), two in 1992 (75–76), three in 1995 (77–79), Osmaniye in 1996 (80) and finally Düzce in 1999 (81).

All 81 provinces by region

Turkey's seven geographical regions were defined at the First Geography Congress in 1941. Some provinces stretch across more than one region, but at school each province is taught as part of a single region. The table lists them in plate-code order:

The Black Sea region has the most provinces (18), while the Aegean and the Mediterranean have the fewest (8 each). The map in Turkey Map Master uses the same seven colours, so checking the colour first halves the search.

Six techniques that make it stick

1. Region first, then province

Trying to learn 81 names at once is exhausting; the brain stores information better in small chunks. Learn where the seven regions are, then focus on one region a day. In a week you will have covered the whole country.

2. Build chains along the coast

Read the coastal provinces of the Black Sea region from west to east like a sequence: Düzce, Zonguldak, Bartın, Kastamonu, Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon, Rize, Artvin. On the Mediterranean, from west to east, come Muğla, Antalya, Mersin, Adana and Hatay. Ordered lists are far easier to recall than jumbled ones.

3. Start from the neighbours

Begin with a province you know well and spread outwards. If you know Ankara, you can easily place the provinces around it: Bolu, Çankırı, Kırıkkale, Kırşehir, Aksaray, Konya and Eskişehir. The Neighbours mode in the game trains exactly this.

4. Use the corners as landmarks

Provinces at the edges of the map are easy to remember: Edirne in the north-west, Hatay in the south, Artvin in the north-east and Hakkari in the south-east. Everything in between becomes easier to place.

5. Pair each province with a dish or a sight

A story sticks better than a bare name. If Cağ kebab makes you think of Erzurum, Sumela Monastery of Trabzon, Lake Salda of Burdur and Göbeklitepe of Şanlıurfa, you will remember where those provinces are on the map too.

6. Space out your practice

If we learn something once and leave it, we forget most of it within days. Repeating it at growing intervals (the next day, three days later, a week later) makes it last. The five-minute Daily Challenge is the easiest way to build that habit.

Practise with Turkey Map Master

Turkey Map Master was built to put these techniques into practice. You play on a large map of Turkey with real provincial borders; on a phone you pinch to zoom and drag to pan. Province names keep their original Turkish spelling.

Each province you find on the map for the first time joins your collection, and your grey map fills with colour region by region. A correct answer is worth 10 points with a small bonus for speed, and there is no time limit.

Frequently asked questions

Which is the largest and the smallest province?

By area, Konya is the largest province and Yalova the smallest. You may need to zoom in a little to find Yalova on the map.

Why do some plate codes seem to break the alphabetical order?

Mersin (33), Kahramanmaraş (46) and Şanlıurfa (63) got their codes under their old names İçel, Maraş and Urfa. Codes from 68 onwards follow the order in which the provinces were created, not the alphabet.

Can teachers use the game in class?

Absolutely. Rounds are short (12 questions), the map is easy to read on a projector and the fact notes spark discussion. For younger children, have a look at our Educational Games too.