Sydney is not the capital of Australia, and Istanbul is not the capital of Turkey. Here is a clear guide to the capitals that catch quiz players out.
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Capital cities look like the easiest subject in any geography quiz. You either know the answer or you do not. Yet capitals produce more wrong answers than almost any other topic, because the most famous city in a country is very often not its capital. This guide covers the ones that cause the most trouble, and the reasons behind them.
The Capital Is Not Always the Biggest City
A capital is simply the city where a country's government sits. It does not have to be the largest, the richest or the best known. These are the pairs that quiz players mix up most often:
- Australia: Canberra, not Sydney or Melbourne
- Canada: Ottawa, not Toronto or Montreal
- Turkey: Ankara, not Istanbul
- Brazil: Brasilia, not Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo
- United States: Washington, D.C., not New York
- Switzerland: Bern, not Zurich or Geneva
- New Zealand: Wellington, not Auckland
- Nigeria: Abuja, not Lagos
- Pakistan: Islamabad, not Karachi
- Vietnam: Hanoi, not Ho Chi Minh City
- Morocco: Rabat, not Casablanca
- United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi, not Dubai
Capitals Built on Purpose
Several capitals did not grow naturally. They were designed and built to be seats of government, often to settle an argument between rival cities.
- Canberra: Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital of Australia, so a new city was built between them. It was designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin.
- Brasilia: opened in 1960 in the interior of Brazil to encourage development away from the coast. Seen from above, its plan resembles an aeroplane.
- Washington, D.C.: laid out in the 1790s as a federal city that would belong to no single state.
- New Delhi: the British announced in 1911 that the capital of India would move from Calcutta to Delhi. The new city, designed chiefly by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, was inaugurated in 1931.
- Islamabad: built in the 1960s to replace Karachi as the capital of Pakistan.
Countries With More Than One Capital
- South Africa has three. Pretoria is the seat of the government, Cape Town of the parliament and Bloemfontein of the highest court of appeal.
- Bolivia has two. Sucre is the constitutional capital, while the government works from La Paz.
- The Netherlands names Amsterdam as its capital, but the government and the royal residence are in The Hague.
Capitals That Hold Records
- Highest: La Paz in Bolivia, at around 3,600 metres above sea level.
- Northernmost capital of a sovereign state: Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Southernmost: Wellington, New Zealand.
- Smallest country and capital in one: Vatican City, which is both a city and a state.
- Largest urban area: Tokyo, Japan.
- No official capital: the Pacific island nation of Nauru. Its government offices are in the district of Yaren.
Capitals That Moved or Changed Name
Capitals are not permanent. Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. Myanmar moved its government from Yangon to the newly built city of Naypyidaw in the 2000s. Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, was renamed in 2019 and then given back its old name in 2022. Indonesia is building a new capital called Nusantara on the island of Borneo to relieve pressure on crowded Jakarta. Because these things change, it is worth checking an up-to-date source before an important quiz.
Indian State Capitals That Cause Confusion
The same rule applies inside India. The capital of a state is not always its most famous city.
- Gujarat: Gandhinagar, not Ahmedabad
- Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram, not Kochi
- Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal, not Indore
- Chhattisgarh: Raipur
- Jharkhand: Ranchi, not Jamshedpur
- Odisha: Bhubaneswar, not Cuttack
- Assam: Dispur, not Guwahati
- Uttarakhand: Dehradun
Chandigarh is a special case. It is a union territory that serves as the capital of two states, Punjab and Haryana, and it was planned by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. Some states also use two capitals, one for summer and one for winter, such as Maharashtra with Mumbai and Nagpur.
How to Remember Capitals
- Learn by continent. Take one region at a time, such as South America, which has only twelve countries.
- Use a blank map. Writing the capital on the map links the name to a location.
- Study the exceptions first. If you know the twelve tricky pairs listed above, you have already avoided the most common mistakes.
- Attach a story. Canberra exists because two cities could not agree. A reason is easier to remember than a bare name.
- Test, do not just read. Cover the answers and say each capital aloud.
Test Your Capitals
Think you can tell Canberra from Sydney under time pressure? Try Quizlino's World Capitals Quiz and find out how many you really know.