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Essen (German pronunciation: [ˈɛsn̩] ( listen); Low Franconian and Ripuarian: Esse, (Latin: Assindia) is a German city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is on the Ruhr River and it is near Cologne, Duisburg and Bochum. Essen has 585,000 inhabitants. Together with Dortmund, Essen is the biggest city of the Ruhr area with its 5,000,000 inhabitants. Essen is often called the shopping city (Einkaufsstadt) because there are so many malls and shops in it.