99 Fun Facts About Capital City

Which city was chosen as Australia's capital as a compromise between two rival cities?

Canberra was chosen in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, and the purpose-built city is Australia's largest inland city.

Vientiane is the capital city of which Southeast Asian country?

Vientiane is the capital of Laos. It sits on the Mekong River beside the Thai border and served as the administrative capital of French Laos while Luang Prabang remained the royal seat.

Which European capital hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, then endured a 1,425-day siege?

Sarajevo's siege ran 1,425 days, from April 1992 to February 1996, the longest of a capital in modern history; the 1984 Winter Olympics had marked a prosperous era.

Before 1982, the capital of Zimbabwe was known by what name?

Founded as Fort Salisbury in 1890 after the British prime minister, it was renamed on the second anniversary of independence.

Port Moresby is the capital of which Pacific island nation?

Papua New Guinea's capital and largest city took the role at independence in 1975; locals call it Pom City or simply Moresby.

What is the capital city of France?

Paris has been the capital of France for centuries and is a major global centre for culture, fashion and art; its metropolitan population is about 13.2 million.

Reunification in 1990 returned which city to its role as capital of all Germany?

Berlin had been the capital before the country's division and regained the role with reunification in 1990; it is also Germany's largest city.

Which city serves as the capital of Italy?

Rome is the capital of Italy. It became the seat of government in 1871, a decade after unification, once the Papal States had been annexed.

Which city has been Spain's capital since 1561?

Madrid has been Spain's capital since Philip II moved his court there in 1561; it sits near the centre of the Iberian Peninsula and is the country's most populous city.

Which purpose-built capital, planned by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, replaced Rio de Janeiro in 1960?

Brasilia was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek on 21 April 1960 to pull the seat of government towards the centre of the country.

Which purpose-built city replaced Lagos as Nigeria's seat of government on 12 December 1991?

Abuja, a planned city inside the Federal Capital Territory near Nigeria's geographic centre, formally replaced Lagos as the seat of government on 12 December 1991.

Which city, Turkey's second-largest after Istanbul, is the country's capital and seat of government?

Ankara became Turkey's capital in 1923 under Atatürk, replacing Istanbul; in antiquity, as Ancyra, it was the capital of Celtic Galatia and later of the Roman province of the same name.

Which is the southernmost capital of any sovereign state?

Wellington, at about 41°S, lies further south than Canberra, Santiago or Buenos Aires, making it the southernmost capital of any sovereign state.

Which city is Bolivia's constitutional capital and Supreme Court seat, rather than La Paz?

Sucre is Bolivia's constitutional capital and home of its Supreme Court, while La Paz hosts the executive and legislature; Sucre is also the capital of Chuquisaca Department.

Which city did Queen Victoria pick as Canada's capital in 1857?

Queen Victoria chose Ottawa on 31 December 1857 as a compromise between English and French Canada; the small lumber town was also set back from the US border and hard to attack.

Which city is the capital of Japan?

Tokyo, formerly Edo, became Japan's capital in 1868 when Emperor Meiji moved his court there from the old imperial seat; the new name means 'eastern capital'.

Which city is the capital of Egypt?

Cairo is Egypt's capital and the largest urban area in Africa and the Arab world; it sits on the Nile, with the Giza pyramids on the western edge of its metropolitan area.

Which city, now Kenya's capital, started out as a railway depot in 1899?

Nairobi began in 1899 as a depot on the Uganda Railway running inland from Mombasa and grew into Kenya's capital and the commercial hub of East Africa.

Which city is the capital of Argentina?

Buenos Aires is Argentina's capital. The name means 'fair winds', shortened from the 1536 settlement's dedication to Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre.

Which city is the capital of Peru?

Lima is the capital of Peru. Francisco Pizarro founded it in 1535 as La Ciudad de los Reyes, the City of Kings, and it became the seat of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Which city is the capital of Colombia?

Bogotá is Colombia's capital. It sits at about 2,640 metres on a high Andean plateau, making it one of the highest large cities in the world.

Which city is the capital of Cuba?

Havana is the capital of Cuba. Its old town, with Spanish colonial forts and plazas, was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Which city is the capital of Saudi Arabia?

Riyadh is the capital of Saudi Arabia. Its name means 'the gardens' in Arabic, a reference to the oasis settlement it grew from in the Najd region.

Which city is India's most populous, even though New Delhi is the capital?

Mumbai, with about 12.4 million people in the 2011 census, is India's most populous city proper; New Delhi, built by the British in the 1910s and 1920s to replace Calcutta, is the capital.

Which city is the capital of Morocco?

Rabat, an Atlantic port, became Morocco's seat of government in 1912 under the French protectorate and remained capital at independence; Casablanca is far bigger, and Fez and Marrakesh were earlier imperial capitals.

Which city is the capital of Vietnam?

Hanoi is Vietnam's capital. Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, is much larger, but Hanoi, capital of the North, became capital of the whole country at reunification in 1976.

Which city is the capital of Pakistan?

Islamabad, whose name means 'City of Islam', was built from scratch in the 1960s to replace Karachi as Pakistan's capital, with neighbouring Rawalpindi serving as the interim seat of government.

Which city inside Metro Manila, rather than Manila itself, is the Philippines' most populous?

Quezon City, named after President Manuel Quezon, is the country's most populous city and was the official capital from 1948 to 1976 before Manila regained the title.

Which city is the capital of Ecuador?

Quito, Ecuador's capital, sits at about 2,850 metres in the Andes just south of the equator that gives the country its name; the larger city, Guayaquil, is the main port.

Which city is the capital of Kazakhstan, and was briefly renamed Nur-Sultan between 2019 and 2022?

Astana, whose name means 'capital city' in Kazakh, replaced Almaty as Kazakhstan's capital in 1997 and carried the name Nur-Sultan from 2019 to 2022.

Which purpose-built city with an empty 20-lane boulevard replaced Yangon as Myanmar's capital in 2005?

Naypyidaw, whose name means 'abode of the king', replaced Yangon as Myanmar's capital in 2005; it covers more than 7,000 square kilometres with fewer than a million people, and visitors describe its empty boulevards as a ghost town.

Sri Lanka's parliament sits in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, effectively a suburb of which commercial capital?

Colombo is Sri Lanka's commercial capital; the legislative capital was formally moved to neighbouring Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte in 1982 when the new parliament building opened, and that name means 'resplendent city of growing victory'.

Ivory Coast moved its capital in 1983 to which city, now home to the world's largest church?

Yamoussoukro became Ivory Coast's political capital in 1983; its Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1990, is the world's largest church, while Abidjan remains the economic capital.

Which city was designated Tanzania's official capital in the 1970s, replacing Dar es Salaam?

Dodoma was designated Tanzania's capital in the 1970s, but the move took decades: the National Assembly relocated there in 1996, while Dar es Salaam kept its role as the commercial and maritime hub.

What inland capital did Belize build after Hurricane Hattie flattened Belize City in 1961?

Belmopan, whose name combines Belize with the Mopan River, was built inland after Hurricane Hattie in 1961; with fewer than 30,000 people it is one of the smallest national capitals, and its parliament building echoes a Maya temple.

Malaysia's prime minister's office and most ministries moved from Kuala Lumpur in 1999 to which planned garden city?

Putrajaya, a planned garden city south of Kuala Lumpur, became Malaysia's administrative centre in 1999 and its third federal territory in 2001; parliament and the king's palace stayed in Kuala Lumpur.

Which country has three capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein?

South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial), a split dating from the 1910 union of four colonies that each wanted a share of the new government.

Amsterdam is the Dutch capital, but parliament, cabinet and Supreme Court sit in which city?

The Hague hosts the Dutch parliament, cabinet and Supreme Court, as well as the International Court of Justice and the king's working palace, Noordeinde, which is why foreign embassies sit there rather than in Amsterdam.

Which country has no capital city defined in its constitution, and simply calls Bern its 'federal city'?

Switzerland's constitution names no capital; Bern was chosen as the seat of federal government in 1848 and styled the 'federal city'. Its medieval old town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.

Which capital, at about 3,650 metres, is the world's highest seat of government?

La Paz, Bolivia's seat of government, sits at about 3,650 metres; the wealthy live in the lower, warmer centre while poorer neighbourhoods climb the surrounding hills, so altitude maps onto income.

Which is the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state?

Reykjavík, at about 64°N, is the northernmost capital of a sovereign state; Nuuk in Greenland lies slightly further north, but Greenland is a self-governing part of the Danish realm rather than an independent country.

Which is the coldest national capital in the world by average annual temperature?

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital, sits about 1,350 metres up, far from any sea and under the Siberian winter high-pressure system, giving it an average annual temperature near 0 °C, the lowest of any national capital.

Which Pacific island nation has no official capital, with government offices in the district of Yaren?

Nauru has no official capital; its government offices sit in Yaren district. The whole country is a single island of about 21 square kilometres, so a formal capital would be redundant.

Which country's capital, Ngerulmud, is the least populous of any sovereign state?

Palau moved its capital from Koror to Ngerulmud on Babeldaob in 2006 to satisfy a constitutional rule that the capital sit on the largest island; Ngerulmud's name means 'place of fermented angelfish'.

On which island did Indonesia begin building its new capital, Nusantara, in 2022?

Borneo: construction of Nusantara began in 2022 in East Kalimantan, on the Indonesian part of the island, and the first Independence Day ceremony was held there in August 2024, with the plan running to 2045.

Monrovia, capital of Liberia, takes its name from which US president?

James Monroe, president when the American Colonization Society founded the settlement in 1822, backed the colony for freed African Americans; first called Christopolis, it was renamed Monrovia in 1824, one of only two capitals named after a US president.

Which 0.61 sq km capital was founded in 1566 by a Grand Master of the Knights of St John and named after him?

Valletta was founded in 1566 by Grand Master Jean de Valette, who had just beaten off the Ottoman siege of 1565; the 0.61-square-kilometre city holds about 320 monuments, including the only painting Caravaggio ever signed.

Palikir replaced which town as capital of the Federated States of Micronesia in 1989?

Kolonia, on Pohnpei, was the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia until the purpose-built seat of government at nearby Palikir opened in 1989.

Which city, Bhutan's capital, gets by without a single traffic light?

Thimphu, home to roughly 15 percent of Bhutan's population, has no traffic lights; white-gloved police direct the cars by hand from a decorated booth at the main junction.

Which city is the capital of Madagascar?

Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, means 'city of the thousand' in Malagasy, for the thousand soldiers said to have guarded the hilltop it was founded on in the early 17th century.

Ouagadougou is the capital of which West African country?

Ouagadougou, shortened by locals to Ouaga, is the capital of Burkina Faso, whose name, adopted under Thomas Sankara in 1984, means 'land of honest people'.

Which city is the capital of Rwanda?

Kigali sits near Rwanda's geographic centre at about 1,567 metres and has a reputation as one of Africa's cleanest cities, helped by the country's 2008 ban on plastic bags.

Which city is the capital of Namibia?

Windhoek, Namibia's capital, takes its name from the Afrikaans for 'windy corner'; it is known for German colonial architecture and for Windhoek Lager, brewed to the Bavarian purity law.

Which city is the capital of Turkmenistan?

Ashgabat, usually translated as 'city of love', is Turkmenistan's capital; in 2013 Guinness recognised it for the world's highest concentration of white marble buildings.

Which city is the capital of Kyrgyzstan?

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, lies near the northern border with Kazakhstan and was called Frunze from 1926 to 1991, after the Bolshevik commander Mikhail Frunze, who was born there.

Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital of which country?

Brunei's capital was renamed Bandar Seri Begawan in 1970 after Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III, father of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah; its Kampong Ayer district is a whole town built on stilts over the river.

Porto-Novo is Benin's official capital, but the presidency and ministries are in which city?

Cotonou, Benin's largest city and port, houses the presidency and most ministries; only the National Assembly stayed in Porto-Novo, the Portuguese-named official capital, after independence in 1960.

Santiago is the capital of Chile, but the National Congress meets in which port city?

Valparaíso, Chile's historic main port, has hosted the National Congress since it reconvened there in March 1990 at the end of the Pinochet era, a move intended to spread power beyond Santiago.

Which national capital was founded in 1728 as Godthaab, "good hope", by missionary Hans Egede?

Nuuk was founded in 1728 by the Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede as Godthaab, 'good hope'; with about 20,000 people it is one of the world's smallest capitals yet holds more than a third of Greenland's population.

Which city was the US capital for the decade before Washington, D.C. took over in 1800?

Philadelphia was the US capital from 1790 to 1800 under the Residence Act while Washington, D.C. was built; it was also home to the nation's first hospital, subscription library and stock exchange.

Which city was Japan's imperial capital from 794 until 1868?

Kyoto, founded as Heian-kyō in 794 on the model of the Tang capital Chang'an, remained the imperial seat until the court moved to Tokyo in 1868, earning the nickname 'thousand-year capital'.

Peter the Great moved Russia's capital away from which city in 1712?

Moscow lost the capital to Peter the Great's new Baltic city, St Petersburg, in 1712; St Petersburg kept the role until 1918, apart from a brief return to Moscow between 1728 and 1730.

Dhaka, one of the world's most densely populated cities, is the capital of which country?

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. It sits on the Buriganga River and, with well over 20 million people in its metropolitan area, is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth.

Tbilisi, named for its sulphur hot springs, is the capital of which country?

Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia; its name comes from the Georgian word for 'warm', and legend says King Vakhtang Gorgasali founded the city in the 5th century after finding its hot springs while hunting.

Which national capital lies about 28 metres below sea level, the lowest in the world?

Baku, Azerbaijan's capital on the Caspian Sea, lies about 28 metres below sea level, making it the lowest-lying national capital and the largest city in the world below sea level.

Which European capital was devastated by an earthquake on 1 November 1755?

Lisbon was struck on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1755, by an earthquake, tsunami and fires that killed an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people and destroyed about 85 percent of the city; the Marquis of Pombal led the rebuilding.

Which capital's Old Town, 85% destroyed in WWII, was rebuilt and is now a UNESCO site?

Warsaw's Old Town, about 85 percent destroyed by German forces after the 1944 Uprising, was rebuilt so faithfully that UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1980.

Which capital was created in 1873 by merging three towns on opposite banks of the Danube?

Budapest was formed in 1873 by uniting Buda and Óbuda on the west bank with Pest on the east; the Chain Bridge, opened in 1849, was the first permanent crossing of the Danube there.

Which capital is nicknamed the 'City of a Hundred Spires'?

Prague earned the nickname 'City of a Hundred Spires' from a count by the 19th-century mathematician Bernard Bolzano; modern tallies put the number of towers and spires at around 500 or more.

Which capital is home to the Palace of the Parliament, the heaviest building on Earth?

Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament, begun under Ceaușescu in 1984, weighs about 4.1 million tonnes and is the world's heaviest building and its largest civilian administrative building.

The name of which capital comes from Irish words meaning 'black pool'?

Dublin takes its name from the Irish Dubh Linn, 'black pool', a tidal pool on the River Poddle where Viking ships moored, on the site of the Dubhlinn Gardens beside Dublin Castle today.

Which city replaced Nafplio as the capital of the newly independent Greek state in 1834?

Athens, then a small town of a few thousand people, became the Greek capital in 1834 under King Otto, chosen largely for its classical heritage; Nafplio had been the provisional capital since 1829.

Which city was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871?

Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871, taking over from Turin before Rome; the capital years launched Giuseppe Poggi's modernisation plan, which replaced the city walls with ring boulevards.

Which city on the Rhine was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990?

It beat Frankfurt for the role in a November 1949 decision, and historians call the era the 'Bonn Republic'.

Tirana, proclaimed a capital in 1920 by the Congress of Lushnjë, is the capital of which country?

Tirana is the capital of Albania, which declared independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912; the Congress of Lushnjë made Tirana the temporary capital in 1920 and it was confirmed as permanent in 1925.

Which capital was named Titograd from 1946 to 1992?

Podgorica was renamed Titograd in 1946 in honour of Josip Broz Tito and made capital of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro in place of Cetinje; it took back its old name in 1992.

Mother Teresa was born in which present-day national capital?

Skopje, where Mother Teresa was born in 1910, opened a Memorial House to her in 2009 on the site of the Sacred Heart church where she was baptised.

The bohemian Užupis district, a self-declared republic since the 1990s, is in which capital?

Vilnius's Užupis district declared itself a republic in the late 1990s; it has its own constitution, posted on a wall in many languages, and celebrates its independence day every 1 April.

Which city replaced Turku as Finland's capital in 1812?

Helsinki replaced Turku as capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812; Emperor Alexander I ordered the move to reduce Swedish influence and bring the capital closer to St Petersburg.

Which capital was officially called Kristiania until 1925?

Oslo was rebuilt and renamed Christiania after a 1624 fire, in honour of King Christian IV; after three centuries as Christiania, later spelt Kristiania, the original name Oslo was restored on 1 January 1925.

Which Caribbean capital was founded in 1692 to house survivors of the Port Royal earthquake?

Kingston was laid out in 1692 on Jamaica's south coast for survivors of the Port Royal earthquake, and grew rapidly only after fire destroyed what was left of Port Royal in 1703.

Which capital was built on the ruins of the Aztec island settlement of Tenochtitlan?

Mexico City began as Tenochtitlan, founded around 1325 on islands in Lake Texcoco and rebuilt to Spanish plans after the 1521 siege.

Which South American capital, founded in 1537, is known as the 'Mother of Cities'?

Asunción, Paraguay's capital, was founded on 15 August 1537, the Feast of the Assumption, and is called the 'Mother of Cities' because expeditions from it founded other settlements, including the refounded Buenos Aires in 1580.

Simón Bolívar, the Liberator, was born in which present-day capital city?

Caracas, then capital of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, was Simón Bolívar's birthplace on 24 July 1783; born into a wealthy criollo family, he lost both parents while still a child.

Which capital hosts the headquarters of the African Union?

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, hosts the African Union headquarters and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, earning it the nickname 'the political capital of Africa'.

Which capital stands at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile?

Khartoum, Sudan's capital, stands where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet; the junction is known locally as al-Mogran, 'The Confluence', with Omdurman and Bahri facing it across the rivers.

Which city became a national capital on 9 July 2011, when its country gained independence?

Juba became the capital of South Sudan at independence on 9 July 2011; its population had multiplied in the preceding years, and that September the government announced plans to move the capital to Ramciel.

Which capital sits directly across the Congo River from Kinshasa?

Kinshasa, on the south bank, has more than five times the population of its neighbour across the water.

The ruins of ancient Carthage lie just north of which modern capital?

Tunis, Tunisia's capital, lies beside the ruins of Carthage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 about 15 kilometres from the city centre on the Gulf of Tunis.

Which African capital was called Lourenço Marques until 1976?

Maputo, Mozambique's capital, was Lourenço Marques until 3 February 1976, when Samora Machel's government renamed it after the Maputo River, months after independence from Portugal.

Which capital was founded in 762 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur as a round city?

Baghdad was founded in 762 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur as a circular city on the Tigris; he named it Madinat as-Salam, the 'City of Peace', and astrologers chose the founding date.

Which city, rather than Dubai, is the capital of the United Arab Emirates?

Abu Dhabi houses the office of the President and the Federal Supreme Council; it is the UAE's second-most populous city after Dubai.

The name of which capital means 'Northern Capital'?

Beijing means 'Northern Capital'; the Ming Yongle Emperor gave the city that name in 1403 to distinguish it from Nanjing, the 'Southern Capital', before moving the court there in 1421.

Which Central Asian capital's name means 'Monday' in Persian?

Dushanbe means 'Monday' in Persian and Tajik; the Tajik capital grew from a village whose large bazaar was held every Monday, and it was called Stalinabad from 1929 to 1961.

Malé, squeezed onto an island of about 8 square kilometres, is the capital of which country?

With around 212,000 people, it is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth.

Which capital's full ceremonial name is listed by Guinness as the world's longest place name?

Bangkok's full ceremonial name, beginning Krungthepmahanakhon, runs to 168 letters, the longest place name listed by Guinness; many Thais learned it from a 1989 rock song by Asanee-Wasan built around it.

Which capital, founded in 1496, is the Americas' oldest continuous European settlement?

Santo Domingo, founded in 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus, is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas; its Colonial City was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990.

Since 2012, South Korea has moved many ministries from Seoul to which planned city?

Sejong, launched in July 2012 as a Special Self-Governing City about 120 km south of Seoul, became South Korea's de facto administrative capital as ministries moved in, while the National Assembly kept its seat in Seoul.

Which capital traces its origins to the fortress of Erebuni, founded in 782 BC?

Yerevan traces its origins to Erebuni, a fortress founded in 782 BC by King Argishti I of Urartu on the Ararat Plain; the name Erebuni is thought to have evolved into Yerevan.