is a city in Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. As of March 31, 2017, the city had a population of 122,643 and a population density of . The total area is . Beppu is famous for its hot springs. Geography Beppu is situated at the west end of Beppu Bay, around the east central prefecture. The north, west, and east of the city are the mountains or highlands with elevations of several hundreds meters above sea level. Most of those mountains are Quaternary volcanos. Particularly, such mountain as Mount Tsurumi is relatively new, and fumarolic activities are observed. Besides Mount Tsurumi, Mount Yufu, Mount Ohira and so forth shape a range of mountains. The west area of the city includes a number of scenic locations such as Yufugawa Canyon, which has been selected as one of One Hundred View of Oita, and/or some designated areas of Aso Kujū National Park, with a large amount of forests. The east area of the city consists of an alluvial fan as well as alluvial plain, made with rivers flowing into Beppu Bay, namely Asami River, Haruki River and Sakai River. The main urban area of Beppu has been formed within this relatively narrow land which spans approximately 5 km from east to west and 10 km from north to south. There are a large number of faults on the north and south of the alluvial fan, surrounding the urban area. Given the short distance from the sea shore on the east coast to the west part of the city with altitude of several hundreds meters or higher, the city has many slopes mainly on the east-west direction. Neighboring municipalities Oita Usa Yufu Hiji History The city was founded on April 1, 1924, with its population of 36,276. Hot springs Beppu is famous for its onsen (hot springs). It has eight major geothermal hot spots, sometimes referred to as the "eight hells of Beppu" among many others. Six of these are located close by within in the Kannawa district up the hill, and two are in the nearby Shibaseki district down the hill. Beppu is also divided into eight major hot spring areas known as . Beppu Hattō hot spring areas Some hot springs in the Beppu area are Beppu Onsen, Kankaiji, Kamegawa, Shibaseki, Kannawa, Myoban, Horita, Hamawaki, among others. In addition, Oniyama Jigoku, known as "monster mountain hell" for the