Capitals quiz
Which city is the capital? You get a country and choose from four cities — clear, quick, no login.
Not every capital sits where you'd expect, and plenty of them aren't even the biggest city in their own country. Australia built an entirely new city because Sydney and Melbourne couldn't agree who deserved the title, so the country settled on Canberra, right in between. Turkey is run from Ankara, not Istanbul, and decisions in the US get made in Washington, not New York.
The highest capital in the world is La Paz, Bolivia, sitting around 3,640 metres above sea level. Technically La Paz is only the seat of government though, Bolivia's official capital is Sucre.
Some countries make things even more complicated. South Africa has three capitals, Pretoria for the government, Cape Town for parliament, Bloemfontein for the courts. Nauru has no official capital at all, its government offices simply sit in the Yaren district.
The smallest capital belongs to the smallest country too. Vatican City covers less than half a square kilometre. Spend some time with the capitals quiz and you'll notice how many of these names already sound familiar, even if you couldn't place them on a map a minute ago.