The de facto capital of the smallest republic on Earth: an airstrip, a parliament and the moonscape left by a century of phosphate mining.
Kiribati's capital is a chain of islets joined by causeways, three metres above a rising ocean and one of the densest places in the Pacific.
The capital Myanmar built from farmland in 2005 and moved to overnight: twenty-lane highways with almost nothing on them, and an Uppatasanti Pagoda one foot shorter than Shwedagon.
A capital of a few government buildings in the Pohnpei jungle, twenty minutes from the basalt city of Nan Madol.
One of the smallest capitals in the world, a clock tower copied from London and the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke market.
The Andes as backdrop to a capital of markets, Barrio Bellavista and the cable car up San Cristobal.
Samoa’s waterfront capital: the fish market, the Immaculate Conception cathedral and Sunday church singing.
Sleepy colonial island capital.
The world's smallest national capital.
Cobbled capital of stone arches, the botanical gardens where Bligh’s breadfruit was planted, and Fort Charlotte above.
Riverside capital on the White Nile.
Walk the whole capital in an afternoon — a strip of land so thin the airstrip doubles as the village green.
One of the region’s biggest livestock markets, camels haggled over by the hundred.
Cliff-carved tunnel fortifications.
Giant hilltop statue of Christ.
Pastel Dutch waterfront, UNESCO-listed.
Old churches of the capital.
Riverside old town below the cliffs.
Wooden colonial capital and markets.
A horseshoe harbour of Georgian houses and fish-scale roof tiles, with Fort George above and spice markets below.
Futurist petrol station shaped like an aeroplane — icon of Asmara’s modernism.
Bissau's faded colonial centre.
The largest church in the world, a marble replica of St Peter’s standing in the African bush.
Birthplace of the Liberian nation.
The Prince of Liechtenstein’s home on a crag above the capital — closed inside, but the hillside path gives the postcard view.
Quiet beach across from Libreville.
Atlantic islands off Conakry.
Fortress park above the meeting of the Sava and the Danube.
Baroque old town, UNESCO-listed.
Whole streets of flamboyant Jugendstil facades — Europe’s densest collection.
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