50 Fun Facts About Asian Capital Cities

Which city, whose 168-letter ceremonial name is the world's longest place name, is the capital of Thailand?

Bangkok is known to Thais as Krung Thep, the opening words of a ceremonial title that Guinness World Records lists at 168 letters.

Which city, known as Edo until it was renamed in 1868, is the capital of Japan?

Tokyo means 'Eastern Capital', a name it took when the imperial court moved there. As Edo it had already grown from a fishing village to more than a million people.

Which Chinese city, the national capital, was given a name meaning 'Northern Capital' in 1403?

Beijing was named under the Ming dynasty to tell it apart from Nanjing, the 'Southern Capital'. Work on the Forbidden City began three years later.

Which city, home to the hilltop mausoleum of Atatürk, became the capital of Turkey in 1923?

Ankara took over from Istanbul, the old Ottoman capital, when the republic was founded. It has since grown into Turkey's second-largest city.

Which city, designed by the British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, is the capital of India?

New Delhi was inaugurated in 1931, two decades after George V announced that the capital of British India would move from Calcutta.

Which city, built on a T-shaped island in the Persian Gulf, is the capital of the United Arab Emirates?

Abu Dhabi lies less than 250 metres off the mainland and is joined to it by bridges. Neighbouring Dubai gets more attention, but the federal government sits here.

Which city, whose name is simply the native Korean word for 'capital city', is the capital of South Korea?

Seoul was officially Hanseong under the Joseon dynasty, but people so often called the capital 'the seoul' that the everyday noun became its name.

Thimphu, a national capital that manages without a single traffic light, is the capital of which country?

Bhutan's capital relies on traffic police who direct cars with dance-like arm movements. Thimphu took over from the old capital, Punakha, in 1955.

Which city, known as Philadelphia in ancient Greek and Roman times, is the capital of Jordan?

Amman was renamed in the 3rd century BC by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who called it after himself. First built on seven hills, the city now spreads over 19.

Which capital of Kazakhstan was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019, then switched back to its old name in 2022?

Astana simply means 'capital city' in Kazakh. It took over from Almaty in 1997 and has also been called Akmolinsk and Tselinograd.

Which city on the Red River, once called Thăng Long or 'ascending dragon', is the capital of Vietnam?

Hanoi was founded as a capital in 1010 by an emperor who is said to have seen a dragon rise from the river. It later served as the capital of French Indochina.

Which city, begun by Spain in 1571 as the walled district of Intramuros, is the capital of the Philippines?

Manila lost the seat of government to neighbouring Quezon City in 1948 and was reinstated as capital in 1976. Its old nickname is the 'Pearl of the Orient'.

Which city on the island of Java, long Indonesia's capital, was called Batavia under Dutch colonial rule?

Jakarta was rebuilt as Batavia by the Dutch East India Company in 1619, a name taken from a Germanic people the Dutch regarded as their ancestors.

Which planned city beside the Margalla Hills was built in the 1960s to be the capital of Pakistan?

Islamabad was laid out by the Greek architect Constantinos Doxiadis. The capital moved there from Karachi after a temporary stay in neighbouring Rawalpindi.

Which city on the Najd plateau, whose Arabic name means 'gardens', is the capital of Saudi Arabia?

Riyadh was named for the date orchards outside its old walls. On its outskirts lies Diriyah, the original home of the ruling House of Saud.

Which city at the foot of the Alborz mountains was chosen as the capital of Iran in 1786?

Tehran was picked by the Qajar ruler Agha Mohammad Khan, partly to stay close to contested lands in the Caucasus.

Which city on the Tigris, founded in 762 as a circular walled capital, is the capital of Iraq?

Baghdad was founded by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur, who named it the 'City of Peace'. Its core, known as the Round City, was about 2 km wide.

Which city, nicknamed the 'City of Jasmine' and home to the Umayyad Mosque, is the capital of Syria?

Damascus is counted among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its Grand Mosque, begun in 706, is one of the oldest sites of continuous Muslim prayer.

Which city, whose Malay name means 'muddy confluence', grew from an 1850s tin-mining town into Malaysia's capital?

Kuala Lumpur stands where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet. It is home to Malaysia's parliament and to the Petronas Towers, the tallest twin buildings in the world.

Which city, sitting in a Himalayan valley about 1,400 metres above sea level, is the capital of Nepal?

Kathmandu is said to take its name from Kasthamandap, a three-storey pavilion in the city built entirely of wood without iron nails.

Which city, wedged into a narrow Hindu Kush valley nearly 1,800 metres up, is the capital of Afghanistan?

Kabul was captured in 1504 by Babur, who made it his headquarters and set out from the city in 1526 on the conquest that founded the Mughal Empire.

Which city on the Buriganga River, once the hub of Bengal's muslin trade, is the capital of Bangladesh?

Dhaka is known for its cycle rickshaws, the city's most common transport, and UNESCO has recognised its rickshaw art as intangible cultural heritage.

Which Sri Lankan port, the country's commercial capital, sits beside the official capital Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte?

Colombo was designated the commercial capital in 1978, when administrative functions moved out to Kotte. It remains Sri Lanka's most populous city and largest port.

Which city on the Taedong River, about 109 km upstream from the Yellow Sea, is the capital of North Korea?

Pyongyang was destroyed in the Korean War and entirely rebuilt to Kim Il Sung's vision, with monuments such as the Juche Tower and the Arch of Triumph.

Which city, founded in 1639 as a nomadic monastery that moved more than 20 times, is the capital of Mongolia?

Ulaanbaatar settled at its present site only in 1778. Its name means 'Red Hero', and it is the coldest national capital in the world.

Which city, rebuilt as a model Soviet city after a 1966 earthquake, is the capital of Uzbekistan?

Tashkent lost much of its old city in the quake, and other Soviet republics helped to restore it. Its name is popularly taken to mean 'Stone City'.

Which city on a Mediterranean peninsula, once nicknamed the 'Paris of the Middle East', is the capital of Lebanon?

Beirut earned the nickname before the Lebanese Civil War, when it was a financial and business hub. The Romans knew the city as Berytus.

Which city, cut in two by a UN buffer zone that runs through Ledra Street, is the capital of Cyprus?

Nicosia is divided by the Green Line, named after the colour of the pen a United Nations officer used when drawing the line on a map of the city.

Which city, standing where the Tonlé Sap river meets the Mekong, is the capital of Cambodia?

Phnom Penh is named, legend has it, for Lady Penh, a wealthy widow who raised a hill and a shrine there in 1372 for sacred objects found in a floating tree.

Which planned city, whose Burmese name means 'abode of the king', became the capital of Myanmar in 2005?

Naypyidaw officially took over from Yangon on 6 November 2005, but its name was only made public the following March, at a parade of more than 12,000 troops.

Which city, where a 101-floor tower opened in 2004 as the world's tallest building, is the capital of Taiwan?

Taipei was declared the provisional capital of the Republic of China in December 1949, when the Kuomintang government relocated to the island after its defeat by Communist forces.

Which Japanese city, founded as a new capital in 794, was home to the emperors for the next eleven centuries?

Kyoto is sometimes called the thousand-year capital, and its name simply means 'capital city'. The original city was laid out according to Chinese feng shui.

Which Southeast Asian country takes its name from the Sanskrit for 'lion city'?

Singapore is a city-state, so it has no separate capital. Malay tradition credits a Sumatran prince, Sang Nila Utama, with naming the island Singapura.

Which city, where the Al Jazeera news network began broadcasting in 1996, is the capital of Qatar?

Doha was officially declared the capital in 1971, when Qatar gained independence after decades as a British protectorate.

Which Gulf country shares its name with its capital, once the centre of the region's boat building?

Kuwait City grew rich in the late 1700s as a trade route between the Gulf and Aleppo, and its sailors earned a reputation as the best in the region.

Which port city, overlooked by the Hajar Mountains near the Strait of Hormuz, is the capital of Oman?

Muscat was held by the Portuguese for over a century after an admiral sailed in during 1507. It became the capital in 1793, taking over from Rustaq.

Malé, traditionally called the King's Island because royal dynasties ruled from it, is the capital of which country?

The Maldives abolished its monarchy in 1968, and the royal palace was pulled down when Malé was remodelled. Buildings now cover essentially the whole island.

Which city on the Kura River, named 'the place of warmth' after its hot sulphur springs, is the capital of Georgia?

Tbilisi was known in English and most other languages by a Persian-influenced form of its name, Tiflis, until 1936.

Which city, nicknamed the 'Pink City' for its buildings of local volcanic stone, is the capital of Armenia?

Yerevan traces its history to the fortress of Erebuni, founded in 782 BC by a king of Urartu. Mount Ararat, its principal symbol, can be seen from all over the city.

Baku, the lowest-lying national capital at 28 metres below sea level, is the capital of which country?

Azerbaijan's capital is nicknamed the 'City of Winds' for its harsh gusts. Its townships include Neft Daşları, a settlement built on oil rigs far out in the Caspian Sea.

Which city on the Mekong, close to the border with Thailand, is the capital of Laos?

Vientiane has a name that can be read as 'walled city of sandalwood' or 'walled city of the moon'. Its best-known monument is the stupa Pha That Luang.

Bandar Seri Begawan, home of the world's largest residential palace, is the capital of which country?

Brunei's capital was known as Brunei Town until 1970, when it was renamed in honour of a former sultan. It also holds Kampong Ayer, a vast 'water village' built over the river.

Dili, where a 27-metre statue of Christ stands on a globe at Cape Fatucama, is the capital of which country?

Timor-Leste became independent in 2002 with Dili as its capital. The city had been the seat of Portuguese Timor since 1769.

Bishkek, known as Frunze from 1926 to 1991 after a Bolshevik commander born there, is the capital of which country?

Kyrgyzstan's capital began as Pishpek, a fortress the Khanate of Kokand built in 1825 to control caravan routes. The modern name is an adapted form of the old one.

Dushanbe, named 'Monday' after the weekly bazaar once held in the village, is the capital of which country?

Tajikistan's capital was called Stalinabad from 1929 to 1961, and took back its earlier name as a result of de-Stalinization.

Ashgabat, listed by Guinness for its record density of white marble buildings, is the capital of which country?

Turkmenistan rebuilt its capital after an earthquake destroyed much of it in 1948, and since 1991 nearly every new building has been faced in white marble.

Which city, a regional centre for commerce and pearling since the 1600s, is the capital of Bahrain?

Manama took over in 1923 from Muharraq, its twin city on a neighbouring island, and was declared the national capital when British protection ended in 1971.

Which city, about 2,300 metres up and famed for the tower houses of its Old City, is the capital of Yemen?

Sanaa is ringed by clay walls up to 14 metres high, and its Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, holds more than 100 mosques and 6,500 houses.

Which planned city, named after Malaysia's first prime minister, has housed the federal government since 1999?

Putrajaya was begun in 1995 at an estimated cost of US$8.1 billion to move ministries out of the congested capital, which still houses parliament and the king's official residence.

Which planned city, named after the king who created the Korean alphabet, houses many of South Korea's ministries?

Sejong was first meant to replace the capital outright, but in 2004 the Constitutional Court ruled that the capital must stay put, so it became a special administrative city.