Cologne is a major city located in Germany on the left bank of the River Rhine. It serves as the largest city within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and ranks as the fourth-most populous city in the country, with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper.
The city is situated approximately 35 kilometres southeast of Düsseldorf and 22 kilometres northwest of Bonn. It forms part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, which is the second largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. The broader Cologne Bonn urban region has a population exceeding 3.1 million people.