Capitals of Asia

Last reviewed on 2026-10-24.

Every one of the 49 countries of Asia has a designated capital, but the role those capitals play varies a great deal. Some are the seat of government, the largest city, the financial centre, and the cultural heart all at once — Bangkok, Tokyo, Seoul. Others are deliberately small administrative cities placed away from the main commercial hub: Naypyidaw in Myanmar, Astana in Kazakhstan, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte just outside Colombo. A few are split: Israel governs from Jerusalem while most foreign embassies stay in Tel Aviv. This page lists each capital by region, with a short note on what makes it distinct, and links through to the full country profile.

All 49 Asian capitals

The table lists every country covered on AsiaMap.net in alphabetical order, with its capital, the region used on this site, and the approximate latitude and longitude of the city centre in decimal degrees. Negative latitudes are south of the Equator. Capitals marked with an asterisk have a special status explained in the next section.

Coordinates are rounded to two decimal places (roughly 1 km) and mark the city centre, not a specific building. A shorter version of this list without coordinates is on the capitals of Asian countries list page.

ASEAN capitals with coordinates

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has 11 member states. Timor-Leste was admitted as the eleventh member in October 2025, joining the ten countries that had made up the bloc since 1999. The last column gives the approximate straight-line (great-circle) distance from Manila, which is useful for comparing the Philippine capital with its neighbours.

Seen from Manila, the nearest ASEAN capital is Bandar Seri Begawan on Borneo, and the farthest is Jakarta. To check straight-line distances between any two capitals, use the distance calculator.

Capitals with a special status

• Malaysia — Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Kuala Lumpur is the constitutional capital and seat of the monarch and parliament, but the prime minister’s office and most federal ministries moved to Putrajaya, a planned administrative city about 25 km to the south, from 1999.
• Sri Lanka — Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and Colombo. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the official capital and home of the national parliament; neighbouring Colombo remains the commercial centre and hosts many government offices.
• Myanmar — Naypyidaw. The seat of government moved from Yangon to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in 2005–2006. Yangon is still the largest city.
• Indonesia — Jakarta and Nusantara. Jakarta remains the capital. A move to Nusantara, a new city under construction in East Kalimantan on Borneo, has been legislated and is under way, but the transfer has not been completed.
• Israel and Palestine — Jerusalem and Ramallah. Israel designates Jerusalem as its capital, and Palestine claims East Jerusalem as its capital while its administration is based in Ramallah. The status of Jerusalem is disputed internationally, and most countries keep their embassies to Israel in the Tel Aviv area.
• Yemen — Sana’a and Aden. Sana’a is the constitutional capital, but it has been held by the Houthi movement since 2014, and the internationally recognised government has operated largely from Aden, which it declared a temporary capital.
• Kazakhstan — Astana. The capital moved from Almaty in 1997. The city was renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 and reverted to the name Astana in 2022, so older maps may show either name.
• Cyprus — Nicosia. Nicosia is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus and is divided by the UN buffer zone; the northern part is administered by the Turkish Cypriot authorities.

How a city becomes a capital

Capitals usually accumulate the role through history rather than design. Many Asian capitals are the same imperial cities they have been for centuries — Beijing has been a capital under several dynasties; Kyoto held the role in Japan for more than a thousand years before Tokyo took over; Damascus and Baghdad have been seats of power since antiquity. Others were shaped by colonial rule: the Spanish made Manila their capital in 1571 and the Dutch built Batavia (now Jakarta) from 1619, and both ports were kept as capitals at independence. Hanoi is older still — as Thăng Long it became the Vietnamese capital in 1010 — and later also served as the capital of French Indochina.

A smaller group of capitals were planned and moved deliberately. Naypyidaw was built and announced as Myanmar’s capital in 2005 to relocate the seat of government from Yangon. Kazakhstan moved its capital from Almaty to what is now Astana in 1997 to anchor the centre of the country and reduce the dominance of the south-east. Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu, only acquired the role in 1961 when the kingdom modernised its administration. Pakistan did the same in the 1960s, moving its capital from the port of Karachi to the newly built Islamabad in the north. These planned capitals are usually smaller than the city they replaced: Karachi, Almaty and Yangon all remain their countries’ largest cities.

South Asia

• Kabul — capital of Afghanistan, set in a high valley in the Hindu Kush.
• Dhaka — capital of Bangladesh, the country’s political, commercial, and cultural centre on the Buriganga River.
• Thimphu — capital of Bhutan, famous for having no traffic lights — police officers direct traffic at the busiest junctions.
• New Delhi — capital of India, the planned administrative core sitting alongside the much older Old Delhi.
• Tehran — capital of Iran, the largest city of the Iranian plateau.
• Malé — capital of the Maldives, most of it packed onto one small island, making it one of the most densely built cities in the world.
• Kathmandu — capital of Nepal, a Himalayan valley city of temples and pagodas.
• Islamabad — capital of Pakistan, a planned city built in the 1960s next to the older Rawalpindi.
• Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte — legislative capital of Sri Lanka, a suburb of Colombo, which remains the executive and commercial centre.

Southeast Asia

• Bandar Seri Begawan — capital of Brunei, a small but wealthy capital on the Brunei River.
• Phnom Penh — capital of Cambodia, at the confluence of the Mekong, Tonle Sap, and Bassac rivers.
• Jakarta — capital of Indonesia, with construction of the new capital, Nusantara on Borneo, ongoing as a relocation project.
• Vientiane — capital of Laos, a riverside capital on the Mekong.
• Kuala Lumpur — capital of Malaysia; many federal ministries have moved to nearby Putrajaya, the planned administrative city.
• Naypyidaw — capital of Myanmar since 2005; far smaller than Yangon, the former capital.
• Manila — capital of the Philippines, anchor of the much larger Metro Manila urban region.
• Singapore — the city itself is the country in Singapore.
• Bangkok — capital of Thailand, dominant in population, economy, and politics.
• Dili — capital of Timor-Leste, a small port city on the north coast.
• Hanoi — capital of Vietnam, while Ho Chi Minh City is the larger commercial centre in the south.

East Asia

• Beijing — capital of China, the political and cultural heart of the country.
• Tokyo — capital of Japan, at the centre of one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas.
• Ulaanbaatar — capital of Mongolia; about half of the country’s population lives there.
• Pyongyang — capital of North Korea, located in the west of the country.
• Seoul — capital of South Korea, the centre of one of the densest urban regions in the world.
• Taipei — capital of Taiwan, in the north of the island.

Central Asia

• Astana — capital of Kazakhstan, the planned northern capital that replaced Almaty in 1997.
• Bishkek — capital of Kyrgyzstan, in the foothills of the Tian Shan.
• Dushanbe — capital of Tajikistan, in the Hisor Valley.
• Ashgabat — capital of Turkmenistan, near the Iranian border.
• Tashkent — capital of Uzbekistan and the largest city in Central Asia.

West Asia

• Yerevan — capital of Armenia, one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.
• Baku — capital of Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea.
• Manama — capital of Bahrain, on the main island of an archipelago state.
• Nicosia — capital of Cyprus, divided between the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus.
• Tbilisi — capital of Georgia, on the Mtkvari River.
• Baghdad — capital of Iraq, on the Tigris.
• Jerusalem — capital declared by Israel, with most foreign embassies historically based in Tel Aviv.
• Amman — capital of Jordan, set across a series of hills.
• Kuwait City — capital of Kuwait, on Kuwait Bay.
• Beirut — capital of Lebanon, a Mediterranean port and cultural hub.
• Muscat — capital of Oman, on the Gulf of Oman coast.
• Ramallah — the de facto administrative centre of Palestine; East Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital.
• Doha — capital of Qatar, the country’s only major city.
• Riyadh — capital of Saudi Arabia, in the centre of the Arabian Peninsula.
• Damascus — capital of Syria, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
• Ankara — capital of Turkey, with Istanbul still the larger and more economically important city.
• Abu Dhabi — capital of the United Arab Emirates, the federal capital while Dubai is the larger commercial centre.
• Sana’a — capital of Yemen, set in the western highlands.

Quick patterns to notice

• Capital is not always the biggest city. Naypyidaw, Astana, Putrajaya (administrative), Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, and Islamabad were all chosen for administrative reasons rather than population. Yangon, Almaty, Karachi, Mumbai, Istanbul, Ho Chi Minh City, and Tel Aviv all outweigh their respective capitals economically.
• Coastal vs interior. Most South-east Asian capitals (Jakarta, Manila, Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Hanoi) are on or near rivers leading to the sea. Central Asia’s capitals are all far inland, but only Tashkent was a major Silk Road city; Astana, Bishkek and Ashgabat grew from 19th-century forts, and Dushanbe from a village that expanded rapidly in the Soviet era.
• Capitals on borders. Vientiane sits right against the Lao-Thai border; Nicosia is divided in two; Jerusalem’s status is contested.

Capital city records in Asia

• Longest capital name: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (Sri Lanka) has the longest official name of any Asian capital, ahead of Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei). Bangkok’s full ceremonial Thai name, beginning “Krung Thep Maha Nakhon”, is often cited as the longest place name in the world, though the city is officially known in English simply as Bangkok.
• Largest capitals: Tokyo, Jakarta, Dhaka, Beijing, New Delhi, Manila and Seoul all anchor urban regions of well over ten million people. Which one ranks first depends on where the boundary of the metropolitan area is drawn, so different sources give different orders.
• Smallest capitals: Thimphu (Bhutan) and Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) are among the least populous national capitals in Asia. Malé (Maldives) is tiny in area but very densely built.
• Coldest capital: Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) is generally described as the coldest national capital in the world, with long winters well below freezing.
• Furthest north and south: Astana is the northernmost capital in the table above (about 51°N); Dili is the southernmost (about 8.6°S). Tokyo is the easternmost and Ankara the westernmost.

Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Asia?

Asia has no capital. It is a continent, not a country or a political union, so there is no single capital city for Asia as a whole. Each of the 49 Asian countries listed on this page has its own capital, such as Beijing for China, New Delhi for India and Tokyo for Japan.

How many capital cities are there in Asia?

This site covers 49 Asian countries, so it lists 49 capitals. Other lists give slightly different totals depending on whether they count Taiwan, Palestine and Cyprus, and whether they include countries that straddle Europe and Asia, such as Russia.

What are the capitals of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore?

The capital of Thailand is Bangkok, the capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur (with many federal government offices in nearby Putrajaya), and Singapore is a city-state whose capital is Singapore itself.

Which Asian country has the longest capital city name?

Sri Lanka has the longest official capital name in Asia: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, ahead of Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei. Thailand holds a different record: the full ceremonial name of Bangkok, which begins Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, is often cited as the longest place name in the world.

What are the capitals of the ASEAN member states?

The 11 ASEAN capitals are Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Vientiane (Laos), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Naypyidaw (Myanmar), Manila (the Philippines), Singapore, Bangkok (Thailand), Dili (Timor-Leste) and Hanoi (Vietnam). Timor-Leste became the eleventh member in October 2025.

How far is Manila from other Southeast Asian capitals?

Measured in a straight line, Manila is about 1,270 km from Bandar Seri Begawan, about 1,750 km from Hanoi, about 2,210 km from Bangkok, about 2,390 km from Singapore and about 2,790 km from Jakarta. Bandar Seri Begawan is the nearest ASEAN capital to Manila and Jakarta the farthest.

Is the capital always the largest city in an Asian country?

No. Several Asian capitals are smaller than their country’s main commercial city, including Naypyidaw (Yangon is larger), Astana (Almaty), Islamabad (Karachi and Lahore), Ankara (Istanbul), Hanoi (Ho Chi Minh City) and Abu Dhabi (Dubai).

Why do Israel and Palestine have disputed capitals?

Israel designates Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestine claims East Jerusalem as its capital and its administration is based in Ramallah. The status of Jerusalem is internationally disputed, and most countries keep their embassies to Israel in the Tel Aviv area.

Test yourself

If you want to drill the capital-to-country pairings, the Asia map quiz asks you to click the correct country on the map for each prompt. You can also browse capitals by region: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia. To compare every capital’s location at a glance, the search box on the main Asia map also finds a country when you type its capital.

Related pages

• Capitals of Asian countries — a compact list for quick reference.
• Languages of Asia — the main languages spoken in each country.
• Religions of Asia — how religious affiliation is distributed across the continent.
• Rivers of Asia — many of the capitals above, from Baghdad to Phnom Penh, grew up on these rivers.
• Mountain ranges of Asia — the highlands around Kabul, Thimphu, Kathmandu and Bishkek.