Highest Capital Cities in the World

We picture capital cities at sea level — ports and river-mouths where trade gathered. A handful sit so high that visitors step off the plane and feel it: short of breath, light-headed, slowed down by air that holds a third less oxygen.

There’s a catch, though. Ask how high La Paz is and you get a different answer every time — sources spread across hundreds of metres, because each measures a different point. So we did it consistently: every capital sampled the same way, from Copernicus GLO-30, the European Space Agency’s 30-metre satellite model, at the city’s own coordinates.

Below is the ranking, a sortable table of all 194 capitals, and — because “highest capital” hides two genuine puzzles — an honest account of which city counts as a capital and why the published numbers never agree.

The highest capital city in the world is La Paz, Bolivia’s seat of government, which our model puts at 12,365 ft (3,769 m) — about the height of Mt Fuji’s summit. Next come Quito (9,383 ft (2,860 m)), Bogotá (8,478 ft (2,584 m)) and Addis Ababa (7,884 ft (2,403 m)). Bolivia has two capitals; we rank La Paz because it is the functioning one (see below).

1La Paz12,365 ft (3,769 m)
2Quito9,383 ft (2,860 m)
3Bogotá8,478 ft (2,584 m)
4Addis Ababa7,884 ft (2,403 m)
5Asmara7,657 ft (2,334 m)
6Thimphu7,569 ft (2,307 m)
7Sanaa7,388 ft (2,252 m)
8Mexico City7,323 ft (2,232 m)
9Kabul5,909 ft (1,801 m)
10Gitega5,522 ft (1,683 m)

The 10 highest capital cities, located on the world map — #1 is the highest. La Paz tops the list; the Andes (La Paz, Quito, Bogotá) and the East African highlands (Addis Ababa, Asmara) hold most of the top ten.

The eight highest capitals to scale, against reference altitudes. La Paz stands almost exactly at the height of Mt Fuji’s summit (12,388 ft (3,776 m)); the top three all sit above the 8,202 ft (2,500 m) line where altitude sickness becomes common. (Mt Fuji and the altitude-sickness mark are external references, not our data.)

The highest capital cities

The top of the list is almost all Andes and highlands. La Paz (12,365 ft (3,769 m)) leads, followed by Quito (9,383 ft (2,860 m)) and Bogotá (8,478 ft (2,584 m)) — three national capitals strung along the northern Andes, each built on a high plateau or basin rather than the coast below.

East Africa supplies the next cluster: Addis Ababa (7,884 ft (2,403 m)) in the Ethiopian highlands, Asmara (7,657 ft (2,334 m)) in Eritrea, then Gitega and Nairobi in the Great Lakes highlands. Between them sits Thimphu, Bhutan’s Himalayan capital at 7,569 ft (2,307 m), and Mexico City at 7,323 ft (2,232 m). Only three capitals — La Paz, Quito and Bogotá — clear 8,202 ft (2,500 m).

Why are some capitals so high?

It looks backwards — why build your capital where the air is thin? — until you notice they cluster near the equator. In the tropics, low ground is hot and, historically, malarial; altitude is what makes the climate livable. Climb a kilometre or two and you trade jungle heat for what Quito and Bogotá residents call eternal spring: mild days, cool nights, all year.

That is why the pre-Columbian and colonial capitals of the Andes, and the old highland seats of Ethiopia, grew where they did — on high, temperate plateaus a short vertical distance from the tropical lowlands. The same equatorial-highland logic put Addis Ababa at 7,884 ft (2,403 m) and Asmara not far below. Away from the tropics the pull reverses — temperate-zone capitals sit low, on rivers and coasts.

Which city counts as the capital?

“Highest capital” has a hidden ambiguity: some countries have more than one capital, so the answer depends on which city you count. We rank by the seat of government — the city that actually runs the country — and note the split where it matters.

Bolivia has two capitals. Sucre, in the south, is the constitutional capital and seat of the judiciary, at 9,170 ft (2,795 m). La Paz, higher on the Altiplano at 12,365 ft (3,769 m), is the seat of the executive and legislature — the working capital, and the one the world means by “highest capital.” We rank La Paz; if you counted Sucre instead, Bolivia would still place near the top, just behind Quito.

Two other countries split the role, and in both the seat of government is already the higher city, so the ranking is unaffected. South Africa has three: Pretoria (administrative, the one we rank), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial). Eswatini has Mbabane (administrative, ranked) and Lobamba (royal and legislative). In each case we take the administrative seat and note the others here.

What altitude does to a visitor

Air thins with height: at La Paz’s 12,365 ft (3,769 m) there is roughly a third less oxygen in every breath than at sea level. Arrive quickly from low ground and the body notices — the headache, breathlessness and sleeplessness of acute mountain sickness, which becomes common above about 8,202 ft (2,500 m). The top three capitals all sit above that line.

It shows up in sport, too: football played at La Paz’s altitude is hard enough on visiting teams that the fairness of high-altitude matches has been argued over at the sport’s governing level. For a traveller the standard advice is duller but sound — arrive slowly, rest the first day, go easy on exertion until the body adjusts. Our maps show the terrain these cities are stacked on; see Bolivia for the Altiplano that lifts La Paz so high.

Why sources disagree on the numbers

Look up La Paz’s elevation and you’ll find figures spread across roughly three hundred metres, from the high 3,600s to nearly 3,900. None is exactly wrong — they measure different points. La Paz pours down a canyon and up onto the Altiplano rim, so its “elevation” depends entirely on where you stand: the central valley, the airport up on the rim, or the sprawl of El Alto above it.

That inconsistency is the whole reason for this page. Every figure here is one measurement, made the same way for every capital: the median ground height in a small window at the city’s coordinates, read from the same satellite model. Our La Paz sample — the city centre — is 12,365 ft (3,769 m); the El Alto rim beside it runs some 200 m higher, which is where the loftier published numbers come from. The value isn’t that ours is the “true” one — it’s that all 194 are comparable.

The lowest-lying capitals

At the other end, a single capital sits below the sea: Baku, Azerbaijan, on the Caspian shore at 16 ft (5 m) below sea level — the Caspian itself lies well below the ocean (see countries below sea level). Just above it come the low island and delta capitals — Funafuti, Yaren and the Pacific atoll seats — all within a metre or two of the tide.

Between the extremes, most of the world’s capitals sit low: on rivers, estuaries and coasts, where people and trade have always concentrated. The high capitals are the exceptions, and — as the map shows — they are exceptions with a clear geography.

All 194 capitals, ranked

Sort by elevation, capital or country. Every elevation is our own GLO-30 sample at that capital’s coordinates; each country links to its full interactive 3D map.

194 of 194

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1	La Paz	Bolivia	12,365 ft (3,769 m)
2	Quito	Ecuador	9,383 ft (2,860 m)
3	Bogotá	Colombia	8,478 ft (2,584 m)
4	Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	7,884 ft (2,403 m)
5	Asmara	Eritrea	7,657 ft (2,334 m)
6	Thimphu	Bhutan	7,569 ft (2,307 m)
7	Sanaa	Yemen	7,388 ft (2,252 m)
8	Mexico City	Mexico	7,323 ft (2,232 m)
9	Kabul	Afghanistan	5,909 ft (1,801 m)
10	Gitega	Burundi	5,522 ft (1,683 m)
11	Nairobi	Kenya	5,499 ft (1,676 m)
12	Windhoek	Namibia	5,436 ft (1,657 m)
13	Maseru	Lesotho	5,062 ft (1,543 m)
14	Kigali	Rwanda	5,062 ft (1,543 m)
15	Guatemala City	Guatemala	4,931 ft (1,503 m)
16	Harare	Zimbabwe	4,862 ft (1,482 m)
17	Pretoria	South Africa	4,341 ft (1,323 m)
18	Kathmandu	Nepal	4,239 ft (1,292 m)
19	Ulan Bator	Mongolia	4,213 ft (1,284 m)
20	Lusaka	Zambia	4,186 ft (1,276 m)
21	Antananarivo	Madagascar	4,173 ft (1,272 m)
22	Kampala	Uganda	3,993 ft (1,217 m)
23	Mbabane	Eswatini	3,947 ft (1,203 m)
24	Tehran	Iran	3,858 ft (1,176 m)
25	San José	Costa Rica	3,766 ft (1,148 m)
26	Brasília	Brazil	3,727 ft (1,136 m)
27	Dodoma	Tanzania	3,681 ft (1,122 m)
28	Lilongwe	Malawi	3,458 ft (1,054 m)
29	Andorra la Vella	Andorra	3,406 ft (1,038 m)
30	Gaborone	Botswana	3,307 ft (1,008 m)
31	Yerevan	Armenia	3,251 ft (991 m)
32	Tegucigalpa	Honduras	3,091 ft (942 m)
33	Caracas	Venezuela	2,913 ft (888 m)
34	Ankara	Turkey	2,858 ft (871 m)
35	Jerusalem	Israel	2,575 ft (785 m)
36	Dushanbe	Tajikistan	2,526 ft (770 m)
37	Amman	Jordan	2,520 ft (768 m)
38	Bishkek	Kyrgyzstan	2,516 ft (767 m)
39	Yaoundé	Cameroon	2,365 ft (721 m)
40	Damascus	Syria	2,300 ft (701 m)
41	Madrid	Spain	2,192 ft (668 m)
42	San Salvador	El Salvador	2,133 ft (650 m)
43	San Marino	San Marino	2,096 ft (639 m)
44	Ciudad de la Paz	Equatorial Guinea	2,080 ft (634 m)
45	Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	2,008 ft (612 m)
46	Pristina	Kosovo	1,965 ft (599 m)
47	Islamabad	Pakistan	1,909 ft (582 m)
48	Canberra	Australia	1,860 ft (567 m)
49	Sofia	Bulgaria	1,811 ft (552 m)
50	Santiago	Chile	1,801 ft (549 m)
51	Bern	Switzerland	1,801 ft (549 m)
52	Juba	South Sudan	1,683 ft (513 m)
53	Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,680 ft (512 m)
54	Tbilisi	Georgia	1,647 ft (502 m)
55	Abuja	Nigeria	1,581 ft (482 m)
56	Vaduz	Liechtenstein	1,535 ft (468 m)
57	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	1,401 ft (427 m)
58	Khartoum	Sudan	1,263 ft (385 m)
59	Astana	Kazakhstan	1,178 ft (359 m)
60	Bangui	Central African Republic	1,138 ft (347 m)
61	Bamako	Mali	1,066 ft (325 m)
62	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	994 ft (303 m)
63	Ljubljana	Slovenia	988 ft (301 m)
64	N'Djamena	Chad	974 ft (297 m)
65	Ouagadougou	Burkina Faso	971 ft (296 m)
66	Brazzaville	Republic of the Congo	938 ft (286 m)
67	Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of the Congo	928 ft (283 m)
68	Skopje	North Macedonia	820 ft (250 m)
69	Minsk	Belarus	725 ft (221 m)
70	Ashgabat	Turkmenistan	725 ft (221 m)
71	New Delhi	India	715 ft (218 m)
72	Yamoussoukro	Côte d'Ivoire	689 ft (210 m)
73	Prague	Czechia	669 ft (204 m)
74	Niamey	Niger	663 ft (202 m)
75	Vienna	Austria	636 ft (194 m)
76	Kyiv	Ukraine	607 ft (185 m)
77	Vientiane	Laos	574 ft (175 m)
78	Bratislava	Slovakia	522 ft (159 m)
79	Lima	Peru	509 ft (155 m)
80	Nicosia	Cyprus	502 ft (153 m)
81	Moscow	Russia	499 ft (152 m)
82	Zagreb	Croatia	446 ft (136 m)
83	Nay Pyi Taw	Myanmar	390 ft (119 m)
84	Belgrade	Serbia	390 ft (119 m)
85	Budapest	Hungary	381 ft (116 m)
86	Algiers	Algeria	377 ft (115 m)
87	Warsaw	Poland	374 ft (114 m)
88	Tirana	Albania	371 ft (113 m)
89	Asunción	Paraguay	351 ft (107 m)
90	Managua	Nicaragua	348 ft (106 m)
91	Castries	Saint Lucia	344 ft (105 m)
92	Vilnius	Lithuania	335 ft (102 m)
93	Athens	Greece	295 ft (90 m)
94	Palikir	Micronesia	279 ft (85 m)
95	Bucharest	Romania	276 ft (84 m)
96	Luanda	Angola	246 ft (75 m)
97	Ottawa	Canada	240 ft (73 m)
98	Maputo	Mozambique	213 ft (65 m)
99	Belmopan	Belize	210 ft (64 m)
100	Kingston	Jamaica	203 ft (62 m)
101	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	197 ft (60 m)
102	Ngerulmud	Palau	197 ft (60 m)
103	Lisbon	Portugal	194 ft (59 m)
104	Chișinău	Moldova	177 ft (54 m)
105	Rome	Italy	174 ft (53 m)
106	Monaco	Monaco	174 ft (53 m)
107	Podgorica	Montenegro	161 ft (49 m)
108	Beijing	China	154 ft (47 m)
109	Beirut	Lebanon	148 ft (45 m)
110	Honiara	Solomon Islands	148 ft (45 m)
111	Valletta	Malta	144 ft (44 m)
112	Berlin	Germany	138 ft (42 m)
113	Baghdad	Iraq	138 ft (42 m)
114	Rabat	Morocco	135 ft (41 m)
115	Paris	France	131 ft (40 m)
116	Tokyo	Japan	128 ft (39 m)
117	Pyongyang	North Korea	125 ft (38 m)
118	Havana	Cuba	121 ft (37 m)
119	Reykjavík	Iceland	118 ft (36 m)
120	Freetown	Sierra Leone	118 ft (36 m)
121	Seoul	South Korea	115 ft (35 m)
122	Montevideo	Uruguay	112 ft (34 m)
123	Accra	Ghana	89 ft (27 m)
124	Monrovia	Liberia	89 ft (27 m)
125	Tunis	Tunisia	89 ft (27 m)
126	Brussels	Belgium	85 ft (26 m)
127	Cairo	Egypt	82 ft (25 m)
128	Praia	Cabo Verde	75 ft (23 m)
129	Moroni	Comoros	75 ft (23 m)
130	Oslo	Norway	75 ft (23 m)
131	Buenos Aires	Argentina	72 ft (22 m)
132	Santo Domingo	Dominican Republic	72 ft (22 m)
133	Saint George's	Grenada	69 ft (21 m)
134	Port-au-Prince	Haiti	69 ft (21 m)
135	London	United Kingdom	69 ft (21 m)
136	Porto-Novo	Benin	66 ft (20 m)
137	Helsinki	Finland	66 ft (20 m)
138	Wellington	New Zealand	66 ft (20 m)
139	Port Moresby	Papua New Guinea	66 ft (20 m)
140	Dhaka	Bangladesh	62 ft (19 m)
141	Phnom Penh	Cambodia	62 ft (19 m)
142	Jakarta	Indonesia	59 ft (18 m)
143	Muscat	Oman	56 ft (17 m)
144	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	56 ft (17 m)
145	Dublin	Ireland	52 ft (16 m)
146	Bissau	Guinea-Bissau	49 ft (15 m)
147	Tripoli	Libya	49 ft (15 m)
148	Panama City	Panama	49 ft (15 m)
149	Kuwait City	Kuwait	46 ft (14 m)
150	Mogadishu	Somalia	46 ft (14 m)
151	Port-Vila	Vanuatu	46 ft (14 m)
152	Hanoi	Vietnam	46 ft (14 m)
153	Tallinn	Estonia	39 ft (12 m)
154	Conakry	Guinea	39 ft (12 m)
155	Singapore	Singapore	39 ft (12 m)
156	Stockholm	Sweden	39 ft (12 m)
157	Amsterdam	Netherlands	36 ft (11 m)
158	Taipei	Taiwan	36 ft (11 m)
159	Saint John’s	Antigua and Barbuda	30 ft (9 m)
160	Manila	Philippines	30 ft (9 m)
161	Basseterre	Saint Kitts and Nevis	30 ft (9 m)
162	Manama	Bahrain	26 ft (8 m)
163	Copenhagen	Denmark	26 ft (8 m)
164	Roseau	Dominica	26 ft (8 m)
165	Dakar	Senegal	26 ft (8 m)
166	Lomé	Togo	26 ft (8 m)
167	Washington	United States	26 ft (8 m)
168	Bridgetown	Barbados	23 ft (7 m)
169	Suva	Fiji	23 ft (7 m)
170	Libreville	Gabon	23 ft (7 m)
171	Malé	Maldives	23 ft (7 m)
172	Doha	Qatar	23 ft (7 m)
173	Kingstown	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	23 ft (7 m)
174	São Tomé	Sao Tome and Principe	23 ft (7 m)
175	Bangkok	Thailand	23 ft (7 m)
176	Nouakchott	Mauritania	20 ft (6 m)
177	Victoria	Seychelles	20 ft (6 m)
178	Colombo	Sri Lanka	20 ft (6 m)
179	Bandar Seri Begawan	Brunei	16 ft (5 m)
180	Djibouti	Djibouti	16 ft (5 m)
181	Riga	Latvia	16 ft (5 m)
182	Port Louis	Mauritius	16 ft (5 m)
183	Dili	Timor-Leste	16 ft (5 m)
184	Nuku‘alofa	Tonga	16 ft (5 m)
185	Banjul	The Gambia	13 ft (4 m)
186	Apia	Samoa	13 ft (4 m)
187	Paramaribo	Suriname	13 ft (4 m)
188	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates	13 ft (4 m)
189	Nassau	The Bahamas	10 ft (3 m)
190	Georgetown	Guyana	10 ft (3 m)
191	Majuro	Marshall Islands	10 ft (3 m)
192	Yaren	Nauru	10 ft (3 m)
193	Funafuti	Tuvalu	3 ft (1 m)
194	Baku	Azerbaijan	-16 ft (-5 m)

Highest capital: La Paz, 12,365 ft (3,769 m) — our GLO-30 city-centre sample.

La Paz vs Mt Fuji: within 7 m of the summit (12,388 ft (3,776 m)) — a whole city living at the height of Japan’s highest peak.

See the terrain in 3D

Every capital in the table links to its country’s interactive elevation map, where the plateaus and basins these cities sit on render as real terrain. Start with Bolivia, or browse the full country index. For the other end of the scale, see the lowest countries and average elevation by country.

Frequently asked questions

What is the highest capital city in the world?: La Paz, the seat of government of Bolivia, at 12,365 ft (3,769 m) by our GLO-30 sample — about the height of Mt Fuji’s summit. Quito and Bogotá follow.
Is La Paz or Sucre the capital of Bolivia?: Both, in different ways: Sucre (9,170 ft (2,795 m)) is the constitutional capital and seat of the courts; La Paz (12,365 ft (3,769 m)) is the seat of the executive and legislature and the de-facto capital. We rank La Paz as the working capital and the world’s highest.
Why do sources give different elevations for the same capital?: Because they measure different points — a city can sprawl over hundreds of metres of vertical relief. Published figures for La Paz span roughly 3,600–3,900 m. We report one consistent measurement per capital so they can be compared; see above.
What is the highest capital in Europe? In Africa?: In Africa, Addis Ababa (7,884 ft (2,403 m)), Ethiopia. In Europe, Andorra la Vella (3,406 ft (1,038 m)), Andorra.
What is the lowest capital city?: Baku, Azerbaijan, the only capital below sea level, on the Caspian shore at 16 ft (5 m) below the sea.
Does altitude affect visitors to these cities?: It can. Above about 8,202 ft (2,500 m) — which the top three capitals exceed — acute mountain sickness becomes common in people arriving quickly from low ground. Arriving slowly and resting the first day helps the body adjust.

Methodology & sources

Each capital’s elevation is sampled from Copernicus GLO-30 (ESA, 2021 release): the median ground height in a small native-resolution window at the capital’s coordinates — the same first-party method used across the site (see methodology). Capitals and their coordinates are identified from GeoNames (the PPLC feature). One nuance, disclosed: a sprawling city has no single elevation, so the figure is the reading at the city-centre coordinate — La Paz’s centre, not the higher El Alto rim, for instance.

Seven capitals sit below GeoNames’ city cutoff or outside their country’s mapped extent; those were sampled the same way at the capital’s coordinate to keep the set complete and consistent. The comparison marks in the altitude chart — Mt Fuji (12,388 ft (3,776 m)) and the ~8,202 ft (2,500 m)altitude at which mountain sickness becomes common — are well-established external references, not our data. Capital data current as of 2026-07-29. Built by Marko Visic.

One neutrality note: Jerusalem is included as Israel’s seat of government at 2,575 ft (785 m); its status is disputed, and this page describes the terrain only and takes no position on it.

· Countries below sea level — where Baku and the Caspian sit.
· Average elevation by country — ranked by whole-country height.
· Most mountainous countries — the terrain behind the high capitals.
· More elevation deep-dives — the blog.

Capital elevations sampled from Copernicus GLO-30 (ESA, 2021 release) at each capital’s coordinates; capitals identified from GeoNames. Comparison altitudes (Mt Fuji, the altitude-sickness threshold) are external references. Computed by 3D Elevation Map, 2026-07-29. Built by Marko Visic.