Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin within the wide valley of Gera River, a tributary of the Unstrut. To the south is the Steigerwald forest.
In 2010, Erfurt had a population of over 200,000 and is part of the Erfurt-Weimar-Jena metropolitan area with a population of about 500,000
