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99 free Capital City trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
60 free capital city trivia questions with answers. Sixty capital city questions that go well beyond Paris and Tokyo. The easy end asks for the capitals of Canada, Egypt, Argentina, Kenya and Australia, the ones people confuse with the biggest city (Ottawa not Toronto, Rabat not Casablanca, Hanoi not Ho Chi Minh City). The middle covers countries that moved their capital on purpose: Brasília, Abuja, Astana, Naypyidaw, Dodoma, Belmopan, and Indonesia's half-built Nusantara. The hard end is for people who know that Bolivia and South Africa each have more than one, that Switzerland has none on paper, that Nauru has none at all, and that Palau's is a cluster of government buildings with no residents. There are records too: the highest, the coldest, the northernmost, the wettest, the smallest. It works as a geography-class warm-up, a pub round that separates the map nerds from the rest, or a solo test. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which city was chosen as Australia's capital as a compromise between two rival cities?
Canberra
Canberra was chosen in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, and the purpose-built city is Australia's largest inland city.
Q 02Vientiane is the capital city of which Southeast Asian country?
Laos
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.
Q 03Which European capital hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, then endured a 1,425-day siege?
Sarajevo
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.
Q 04Before 1982, the capital of Zimbabwe was known by what name?
Salisbury
Founded as Fort Salisbury in 1890 after the British prime minister, it was renamed on the second anniversary of independence.
Q 05Port Moresby is the capital of which Pacific island nation?
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea's capital and largest city took the role at independence in 1975; locals call it Pom City or simply Moresby.
Q 06What is the capital city of France?
Paris
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.
Q 07Reunification in 1990 returned which city to its role as capital of all Germany?
Berlin
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.
Q 08Which city serves as the capital of Italy?
Rome
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.
Q 09Which city has been Spain's capital since 1561?
Madrid
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.
Q 10Which purpose-built capital, planned by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, replaced Rio de Janeiro in 1960?
Brasilia
Brasilia was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek on 21 April 1960 to pull the seat of government towards the centre of the country.
Q 11Which purpose-built city replaced Lagos as Nigeria's seat of government on 12 December 1991?
Abuja
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.
Q 12Which city, Turkey's second-largest after Istanbul, is the country's capital and seat of government?
Ankara
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.
Q 13Which is the southernmost capital of any sovereign state?
Wellington
Wellington, at about 41°S, lies further south than Canberra, Santiago or Buenos Aires, making it the southernmost capital of any sovereign state.
Q 21Which city is the capital of Colombia?
Bogotá
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.
Q 22Which city is the capital of Cuba?
Havana
Havana is the capital of Cuba. Its old town, with Spanish colonial forts and plazas, was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
Q 23Which city is the capital of Saudi Arabia?
Riyadh
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.
Q 14Which city is Bolivia's constitutional capital and Supreme Court seat, rather than La Paz?
Sucre
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.
Q 15Which city did Queen Victoria pick as Canada's capital in 1857?
Ottawa
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.
Q 16Which city is the capital of Japan?
Tokyo
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'.
Q 17Which city is the capital of Egypt?
Cairo
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.
Q 18Which city, now Kenya's capital, started out as a railway depot in 1899?
Nairobi
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.
Q 19Which city is the capital of Argentina?
Buenos Aires
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.
Q 20Which city is the capital of Peru?
Lima
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.
Q 24Which city is India's most populous, even though New Delhi is the capital?
Mumbai
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.
Q 25Which city is the capital of Morocco?
Rabat
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.
Q 26Which city is the capital of Vietnam?
Hanoi
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.
Q 27Which city is the capital of Pakistan?
Islamabad
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.
Q 28Which city inside Metro Manila, rather than Manila itself, is the Philippines' most populous?
Quezon
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.
Q 29Which city is the capital of Ecuador?
Quito
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.
Q 30Which city is the capital of Kazakhstan, and was briefly renamed Nur-Sultan between 2019 and 2022?
Astana
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.