Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tuzla is the economic, scientific, cultural, educational, health and tourist centre of northeast Bosnia. Tuzla is the seat of the Tuzla Canton and Tuzla Municipality. At the time of the 2011 census, the city proper had an estimated population of 120,000 inhabitants, while the municipality had around 200,000 and the Tuzla Canton 499.221. After Sarajevo, and Banja Luka, Tuzla is the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Tuzla is an educational center and is home to two universities. It is also the main industrial machine and one of the leading economic strongholds of Bosnia with a wide and varied industrial sector including an expanding service sector thanks to tourism to its salt lakes. The city of Tuzla is home to Europe's only salt lake as part of its central park and has more than 100,000 people visiting its shores every year. The history of the city goes back to the 9th century; modern Tuzla dates back to 1510 when it became an important garrison town in the Ottoman Empire.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina Tuzla is also regarded as one of the most multicultural cites in the country and has managed to keep the pluralist character of the city throughout the Bosnian war for independence and after, with Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and a small minority of Bosnian Jews residing in the city.
The name "Tuzla" is the Ottoman Turkish word for salt mine tuzla, and refers to the extensive salt deposits found underneath the city
