Asia's Capitals: Complete Guide
All 48 Asian capitals by region — from Tokyo and Beijing to purpose-built seats like Nay Pyi Taw and Astana, plus the transcontinental edge cases.
Asia's Capitals: A Complete Reference
Asia is the largest continent by both area and population, and its 48 capitals in this quiz range from megacities of over 20 million people (Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi) to purpose-built administrative seats that many people have never heard of (Nay Pyi Taw, Astana). It is also the continent where capitals move most often — at least four countries here relocated their seat of government in the last century.
East Asia
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| China | Beijing | Not Shanghai, which is larger |
| Japan | Tokyo | Kyoto was the capital until 1868 |
| South Korea | Seoul | — |
| North Korea | Pyongyang | — |
| Mongolia | Ulaanbaatar | Coldest capital city in the world |
Ulaanbaatar is the coldest national capital on Earth, with average annual temperatures below freezing. Tokyo's name literally means "eastern capital" — it was renamed from Edo when the imperial court moved there from Kyoto, whose own name means "capital city."
Southeast Asia
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | Jakarta | Relocation to Nusantara is under way |
| Thailand | Bangkok | — |
| Vietnam | Hanoi | Not Ho Chi Minh City, which is larger |
| Philippines | Manila | — |
| Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | Putrajaya is the administrative seat |
| Myanmar | Nay Pyi Taw | Replaced Yangon in 2006 |
| Cambodia | Phnom Penh | — |
| Laos | Vientiane | — |
| Singapore | Singapore | City-state: country and capital share a name |
| Brunei | Bandar Seri Begawan | Frequently misspelled |
| Timor-Leste | Dili | Independent only since 2002 |
Nay Pyi Taw is one of the strangest capitals in the world: purpose-built in secret and unveiled in 2006, it covers a vast area with twenty-lane highways that are famously almost empty.Indonesia is in the middle of moving its capital from Jakarta — which is sinking and severely congested — to Nusantara on the island of Borneo, a transition that is still in progress.
South Asia
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| India | New Delhi | Not Mumbai; note "New" Delhi |
| Pakistan | Islamabad | Not Karachi or Lahore |
| Bangladesh | Dhaka | — |
| Sri Lanka | Colombo | Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative seat |
| Nepal | Kathmandu | — |
| Bhutan | Thimphu | — |
| Maldives | Malé | One of the most densely populated cities on Earth |
| Afghanistan | Kabul | — |
Islamabad is another planned capital: Pakistan built it in the 1960s to replace Karachi, partly to move the seat of government away from the coast and closer to the country's centre.New Delhi is technically a district within the larger metropolis of Delhi, which is why the "New" matters.
Central Asia
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Kazakhstan | Astana | Renamed Nur-Sultan 2019–2022, then back to Astana |
| Uzbekistan | Tashkent | — |
| Turkmenistan | Ashgabat | Holds a record for white marble buildings |
| Kyrgyzstan | Bishkek | — |
| Tajikistan | Dushanbe | — |
Astana has one of the most confusing recent histories of any capital: it replaced Almaty as Kazakhstan's capital in 1997, was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 after the outgoing president, and then reverted to Astana in 2022. Quizzes written at different times will give you different answers.
The Middle East and Western Asia
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Türkiye | Ankara | Not Istanbul, which is far larger |
| Saudi Arabia | Riyadh | — |
| United Arab Emirates | Abu Dhabi | Not Dubai |
| Iran | Tehran | — |
| Iraq | Baghdad | — |
| Israel | Jerusalem | Status internationally disputed |
| Palestine | East Jerusalem | Ramallah is the administrative seat |
| Jordan | Amman | — |
| Lebanon | Beirut | — |
| Syria | Damascus | Among the oldest continuously inhabited cities |
| Yemen | Sana'a | — |
| Oman | Muscat | — |
| Qatar | Doha | — |
| Kuwait | Kuwait City | — |
| Bahrain | Manama | — |
| Armenia | Yerevan | — |
| Azerbaijan | Baku | Lowest-lying national capital in the world |
| Georgia | Tbilisi | — |
| Cyprus | Nicosia | Grouped under Asia in this quiz |
Ankara is the single most common Asia mistake. Istanbul is much larger and far more famous, but Atatürk moved the capital to Ankara in 1923 precisely because it sat in the Anatolian heartland rather than on the European edge. Baku sits about 28 metres below sea level, making it the lowest-lying national capital in the world.
Nicosia is the last divided capital in the world: a UN buffer zone splits it between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish-administered north. Damascus is at the other end of the timeline — it is regularly cited as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, with settlement going back thousands of years.
Where Asia's Borders Blur
Several countries here could reasonably be filed under another continent. Türkiye spans the Bosphorus and has territory in both Europe and Asia. Cyprus is politically European — it is an EU member — but geographically closer to Asia, and this quiz groups it here. Russia runs the other way and is grouped under Europe. Different sources draw these lines differently, so the "right" answer depends on whose map you are using.
Test Your Asian Capitals
Use the Asia filter in the quiz to play through only Asian countries — with or without flag hints.