Knee muscles and bones. Artwork of an oblique lateral frontal view of the muscles and bones of a human knee. This view is of the outside of the left leg, with the iliotibial band (white) running down the outside of the thigh and attaching to Gerdy's tubercle on the outside of the tibia (one of the lower leg bones). The femur (thigh bone) and patella (knee-cap) are visible below the muscles. Muscles, ligaments and tendons include the patellar ligament and the quadriceps femoris, vastus lateralis, and vastus medialis obliquus thigh muscles (upper right). In the lower leg, the calf muscles are the gastrocnemius and the soleus (lower centre).