Nuremberg is the largest city in Franconia, the second-largest city in the German state of Bavaria, and its 544,414 inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. Nuremberg sits on the Pegnitz, which carries the name Regnitz from its confluence with the Rednitz in Fürth onwards, and on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, that connects the North Sea to the Black Sea. Lying in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, it is the largest city and unofficial capital of the entire cultural region of Franconia. The city is surrounded on three sides by the Nürnberger Reichswald, a large forest, and in the north lies Knoblauchsland, an extensive vegetable growing area and cultural landscape.