Capital of the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate
Mainz, capital of the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate and a university town, a former Electoral and Archiepiscopal capital with a great past, is situated on the left bank of the Rhine opposite the mouth of the Main. It lies in the fertile Mainz Basin, the most
northerly part of the Upper Rhine plain, and is the western focal point of the Rhine-Main economic region. It is Gutenberg's city, with important publishing houses, but also a major traffic junction and commercial and industrial city, with the headquarters of two broadcasting corporations, ZDF (Second Television Channel) and SWF (Southwestern Broadcasting), and it is one of the great centers of the Carnival.