When you look at the most populated cities in Germany, Frankfurt on the Main (the river, pronounced 'mine') ranks fifth behind Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne. From a regional perspective, the Frankfurt Metropolitan region boasts a population of over five million people, third in the country only to the Ruhr Area and Berlin.

As for overall tourist sites in Germany, you may have heard of the Oktoberfest, the Berlin Wall, Hamburg's Red Light District of St. Pauli, or Cologne's cathedral. Can you name one tourist site of international renown in Frankfurt? Even smaller cities like Heidelberg, Potsdam or Weimar seem to garner more ink than Frankfurt on most travel websites.

And yet, only one city ranks as an alpha world city in Germany...this city, Frankfurt am Main (the river needs to be added, as there is also a Frankfurt on the Oder river in eastern Germany). Munich is the closest to it, ranked as an alpha- (minus) city. Rankings to cities are distributed according (primarily, but not exclusively) to economic status. The highest ranking is alpha++ which, predictably, has only been bestowed upon two cities, New York and London. Is Frankfurt low in the estimations of traveled tourists? Perhaps, but there are other factors that can add to the overall value and status of cities.

Consider that Berlin and Hamburg, Germany's two largest cities are beta+ cities, which should tell you something. What's the answer for Frankfurt? Location, location, location.

Frankfurt is not only centrally located in Germany along the Main and Rhein rivers, but also in Europe and, arguably, the entire world. Frankfurt can reach any continent, save for Australia within a matter of hours.

Frankfurt is unique in other ways in Germany. Whereas in most cities either a church or a TV tower will dominate a skyline, Frankfurt boasts a skyline not unlike most of its U.S. or Asian counterparts, with tall skyscrapers strategically situated along the Main river. It's no coincidence that Frankfurt earned itself the name 'Mainhattan', a nod to America's alpha++ city across the Atlantic.

Of course, Frankfurt has another nickname, that being 'Bankfurt', another similarity to Wall Street driven New York. Located in Frankfurt are the German National Bank, the European Central Bank, and the stock exchange, better known as the DAX. Just as an aside, you'll find the world famous Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse), the Music Fair, and the headquarters of the DFB, the Deutscher Fußball Bund, also known as the powerful German Football Association. Now you know where the alpha status comes from.

There's also the so-called 'Frankfurter Kreuz', the Frankfurt Cross, the most frequently employed Autobahn in all of Europe, with over 300,000 vehicles passing through per day. And beneath the Frankfurter Kreuz, you'll find more than moles and armies and ants going about their business, in this case a fast rail tunnel that connects Frankfurt with Cologne to the north.

Frankfurt's airport, the larger Rhein Main Flughafen, has over 60 million passengers per year, which almost triples the total of Berlin's largest airport, Berlin Tegel. In Europe, only London's Heathrow and Paris's Charles de Gaule claim a larger total.

Aside from that, I can assure you Frankfurt is still a beautiful city, which I will have ample time to write about in the coming months. Mainhattan, Bankfurt...just call it Frankfurt, very likely Germany's most important city.