Map - Medan

Medan (English : ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four main central cities of Indonesia, alongside Jakarta, Surabaya, and Makassar. As of the 2020 Census, Medan has a population of 2,435,252 within its city limits, and over 3.4 million in its built-up urban area, making it the fourth largest urban area in Indonesia. The Medan metropolitan area—which includes neighbouring Binjai, Deli Serdang Regency, and a part of Karo Regency—is the largest metropolitan area outside of Java, with 4,744,323 residents counted in the 2020 Census. Medan is a multicultural metropolis and a busy trading city bordered by the Strait of Malacca, making it one of the major economic cities in Indonesia. A gateway to the western part of Indonesia, Medan is supported by the Port of Belawan and Kualanamu International Airport, both of which are connected to the city centre via toll roads and railways.

The city was founded by Guru Patimpus, a Karonese man who named the area of swampy land at the confluence of Deli River and Babura river Kampung Medan Putri. It later became a part of the Deli Sultanate which was established in 1632. In the late 19th century, colonial Dutch seeking new plantation areas chose Medan and Deli as the newest plantation hubs with Deli Company. They set up tobacco plantations, transforming Medan into a trade hub within several years, and earning Medan the nickname Het Land Dollar, meaning "the land of the money". The city was well known due to the importance of tobacco as an export to Europe and the West. The rapid development of Medan came with the Deli Railway, which was established for shipping tobacco, rubber, tea, timber, palm oil, and sugar from Medan to the Port of Belawan, and then exported around the world. Medan was the capital of the State of East Sumatra before it became the provincial capital of North Sumatra. Medan was dubbed Parijs van Sumatra due to the city's resemblance to Paris..

Medan is a financial, trading, and economic center not only for North Sumatra province but for the whole Sumatra Island. For many foreign investors, Medan is not only rich in culture and history but also presents itself as a dynamic economic hub of the world. As the robust capital of North Sumatra, Medan offers a large pool of human capital and talent, lower operational costs, a strategic location close to Singapore and Malaysia, and diverse natural resources. The city is known as a trading hub for palm oil export. In North Sumatra, there are approximately 4 million acres of palm oil plantations. Medan is one of the progressive markets in trading. About 60% of the economy in North Sumatra is backed by trading, agriculture, and processing industries.

According to the diary of a Portuguese merchant in the early 16th century, the name of Medan was derived from Tamil word Maidhan, also known as Maidhāṉam (மைதானம்), that means Ground, adopted from Malay language. One of the Karo-Indonesia dictionaries written by Darwin Prinst SH published in 2002 stated that Medan could also be defined as "recover" or "be better".