Asia Capitals Quiz
From Manama to Ulaanbaatar, twenty questions on the capitals of Asia. This is the continent where capitals move, get renamed, and get argued over more than anywhere else - of its forty-nine countries, seven cannot be asked about at all, and this page explains every one.
Seven asterisks – more than any other continent
Asia holds forty-nine countries in this dataset and only forty-two of them can appear in an Asia capitals quiz. Three of the seven missing are matters of dispute. Israel proclaims Jerusalem as its capital and seat of government, but the city’s international recognition is disputed and most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv. Palestine proclaims East Jerusalem as its capital while Ramallah serves as the de facto administrative centre. Taiwan is not a UN member and its political status is disputed. A quiz question with one blessed answer would be taking a side in each case, so none of the three is asked.
Capitals that are really two cities
The other four absentees split the job. Sri Lanka’s official legislative capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, while Colombo is the commercial capital and the de facto seat of the executive and judiciary. Malaysia keeps Kuala Lumpur as official capital and seat of parliament, but Putrajaya is the federal administrative centre and seat of the judiciary. Indonesia is mid-move: a new capital, Nusantara, is under construction in East Kalimantan while Jakarta remains the seat of government. And Yemen’s constitutional capital is Sanaa, but since 2015 the internationally recognized government has operated from Aden. Four countries, each with two honest answers – which is one too many for a multiple-choice question.
Moved, renamed, and renamed back
Two questions in this round carry the continent’s best stories in their answer note. Kazakhstan’s capital is Astana – a city that was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 and reverted to Astana in 2022, so anyone who learned it in between learned a name that no longer applies. Myanmar answers Naypyidaw, capital only since 2006, with Yangon the former capital and still the largest city – the classic famous-city trap. Singapore, meanwhile, is the tidiest answer in the whole dataset: a city-state where the state and its capital are the same city.
Long names are generous names
Do not fear Bandar Seri Begawan. The capitals that look hardest to say – Brunei’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, Phnom Penh, Kathmandu – are generous in a four-option format, because nothing else on the screen resembles them. The reversed questions are where this round actually bites: Tokyo, Doha, Muscat, Dhaka and Vientiane all appear as cities in search of their country, and Oman-from-Muscat trips far more players than Muscat-from-Oman ever would.