Some countries have multiple capital cities, we may be using one you are unfamiliar with. For the purposes of quizzes in GeoChallenge, when a country has multiple capitals we use the one that is considered official - usually literally referred to as the "official capital", if this is not given we typically use the one considered the administrative centre.


Since first releasing GeoChallenge, a small number of capital cities have been changed to reflect our stance on this. Below is a full list of those changes, along with our reasons for changing them, ordered by most recent first.


List of changes to capital cities in GeoChallenge

v1.4

  • Montserrat - capital is now Brades. Previously this was Plymouth. 
    • Reason for change: Due to devastating volcano eruptions since 1995, the town of Plymouth has remained a ghost town since it was permanently abandoned in 1997. While Plymouth is still the de jure capital of Montserrat, the town of Brades is where government, businesses, and indeed people, reside. Until construction is completed on a brand new town and port, Brades is now the de facto capital, and the one we have decided to use in GeoChallenge.
  • French Southern and Antarctic Lands - capital is now Saint-Pierre. Previously this was Port-aux-Français.
    • Reason for change: French Southern and Antarctic Lands are a group of islands in the south Indian Ocean and collectively a territory of France. Port-aux-Français is the capital settlement of one of these islands, Kerguelen Islands, however it is not considered the capital of the territory. That distinction actually goes to Saint-Pierre, a town on the island of Réunion, where administration of the territory is headquartered.

v1.3.1

  • South Africa - capital is now Pretoria. Previously this was Cape Town.
    • Reason for change: South Africa has three capital cities, Pretoria (administrative and executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial). When no city is given as the "official" capital we choose to use the administrative one.
  • Sri Lanka - capital is now Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Previously this was Colombo.

    • Reason for change: Sri Lanka has two capital cities, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte or simply "Kotte" (administrative and legislative) and Colombo (executive and judicial). When no city is given as the "official" capital we choose to use the administrative one.

If you spot any other minor inaccuracies like this in GeoChallenge, please open a support ticket and once verified we will correct it in a future update.

If you're curious about countries with multiple capitals, you may be interested in reading the Wikipedia article on them.