39 of the Most Challenging World Capitals Across History

Question: Which Indian state has its capital at Shimla?

Answer: The city of Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh state in India.

Question: Which country’s capital city derives its name from dakhar, a Wolof name for the tamarind tree?

Answer: The capital of Senegal is Dakar. The city’s name comes from dakhar, a Wolof name for the tamarind tree (and the name of a coastal Lebu village located there).

Question: In which former Japanese imperial capital would you find Higashi Hongan-ji?

Answer: Buddhist temples, such as Higashi Hongan-ji, and Shinto shrines can be found throughout the city of Kyōto and its surrounding hills.

Question: Havana is the capital of which country?

Answer: Havana is the capital, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba.

Question: What is the capital of Iraq?

Answer: Baghdad is the capital of Iraq. With almost a third of the country’s population, it is the centre of Iraq’s political, economic, and cultural life.

Question: What is the capital of Moldova?

Answer: The city of Chișinău is the capital of Moldova. The first documentary reference to Chișinău dates from 1466.

Question: What city was made the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel in 880/879 BCE?

Answer: Samaria was not founded until about 880/879 BC, when Omri, the king of Israel, made it the new capital of the northern Hebrew kingdom of Israel and named it Samaria. It remained the capital until its destruction by the Assyrians in 722.

Question: The capital of which West Indian country was originally called L’Hôpital?

Answer: Port-au-Prince is the capital, chief port, and commercial centre of Haiti. It was originally laid out in a grid pattern in 1749 by the French and called L’Hôpital.

Question: Bratislava is the capital of which country?

Answer: The city of Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia. It lies in the extreme southwestern part of the country, along the Danube.

Question: What is the capital and largest city of Algeria?

Answer: Algiers is the capital, largest city, and chief seaport of Algeria, as well as the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country.

Question: What is the capital of Turkmenistan?

Answer: Ashgabat is the capital of Turkmenistan. It was founded in 1881 as a Russian military fort and took the name of the nearby settlement of Askhabad.

Question: Which country’s national capital is the city of Tegucigalpa?

Answer: Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras. It was founded in 1578 on the slopes of Mount Picacho as a gold- and silver-mining centre.

Question: What city is the capital of the People’s Republic of China?

Answer: Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China.

Question: What is the world’s highest capital?

Answer: La Paz is Bolivia’s largest city and, at an elevation between 10,650 and 13,250 feet (3,250 and 4,100 metres) above sea level, the world’s highest capital.

Question: What capital city was founded as the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán?

Answer: Mexico City is the capital of Mexico. It was founded in the 14th century by the Aztecs, who named it Tenochtitlán and made it the capital of their empire, which became the largest in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

Question: Doha is the capital of which country?

Answer: The city of Doha is the capital of Qatar.

Question: What is the capital of Slovenia?

Answer: Ljubljana is the capital city and economic, political, and cultural centre of Slovenia. It is located on the Ljubljanica River. It lies in a natural depression surrounded by high peaks of the Julian Alps.

Question: Which U.S. state capital houses the Old State Capitol, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his “House Divided” address?

Answer: The city of Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois. In the Old State Capitol (1837–53, rebuilt in the 1960s as a state historic site), Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, delivered his “House Divided” address..

Question: What is the capital of Brazil?

Answer: Brasília is the federal capital of Brazil. Because of its unique city plan and architecture, as well as its role in the development of the Brazilian interior, the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

Question: What is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta?

Answer: The city of Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, Canada.

Question: What is the capital of Russia?

Answer: Moscow is the capital of Russia.

Question: What is the capital of Croatia?

Answer: Zagreb is the capital and chief city of Croatia. It is situated on the slopes of Medvednica Hill to the north and the floodplain of the Sava River to the south.

Question: Which capital is situated on the banks of the Chao Phraya River?

Answer: Bangkok, the capital and chief port of Thailand, is located on the Chao Phraya River about 25 miles (40 km) from the Gulf of Thailand.

Question: Pretoria is the administrative capital of which country?

Answer: Pretoria is a city in Gauteng province that serves as the administrative capital of the Republic of South Africa.

Question: Yerevan is the capital of which country?

Answer: Yerevan is the capital of Armenia. Though first historically recorded in 607 CE, Yerevan dates by archaeological evidence to a settlement on the site in the 6th–3rd millennia BCE and subsequently to the fortress of Yerbuni in 783 BCE.

Question: What country’s capital is named Yaoundé?

Answer: Yaoundé is the capital of Cameroon.

Question: What is the capital of Botswana?

Answer: Gaborone is the capital of Botswana.

Question: Libreville is the capital of what country?

Answer: Libreville is the capital city of Gabon and a major port in Western Africa.

Question: What is the capital of Iceland?

Answer: Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. According to tradition, the Norseman Ingólfur Arnarson founded Reykjavík (“Bay of Smokes”) in 874.

Question: What city is the capital of Vietnam?

Answer: Hanoi, which was the capital of North Vietnam from 1954 to 1976, is the capital of Vietnam.

Question: What is the capital of the U.S. state of California?

Answer: Sacramento is the capital city of California. The city was the mining centre of the California Gold Rush.

Question: Which European capital, once known as “Queen of the Danube,” was formed from two separate polities located on either side of that river?

Answer: Budapest is the capital of Hungary. It is situated astride the Danube River and was once known as “Queen of the Danube.” “Buda-Pest” was created in 1872 when the towns Pest and Buda (along with Óbuda) were united into a single municipal borough comprising 10 districts.

Question: Which French city became the capital of the papacy in 1309?

Answer: Avignon, in France, became the capital of the papacy in 1309.

Question: Which city replaced Moscow as the capital of Russia for more than 200 years?

Answer: St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 and became Russia’s capital city in 1712. Moscow did not recover its role as capital city until after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Question: Which city was Japan’s capital and the place of residence of the imperial family from 794 to 1868?

Answer: The city of Kyōto was the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years (from 794 to 1868). Its name means “Capital City.” It has been called a variety of names through the centuries: Heian-kyō (“Capital of Peace and Tranquillity”), Miyako (“The Capital”), and Saikyō (“Western Capital”), its name after the Meiji Restoration (1868) when the imperial household moved to Tokyo.

Question: What is the capital of Denmark?

Answer: The city of Copenhagen, located on the islands of Zealand and Amager, is the capital of Denmark.

Question: Which European capital was formerly known as Kristiania?

Answer: Oslo, the capital and largest city of Norway, was formerly Christiania (1624–1877) and Kristiania (1877–1925).

Question: The city of Nicosia is the capital of which island country?

Answer: The city of Nicosia is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus.

Question: What is the capital of Taiwan?

Answer: Taipei is the capital of Taiwan (Republic of China).