What Two Countries in the World Have Their Capitals Closest to Each Other?

The answer to the question in the title is not so simple because of several specific options that are discussed here in the text.

Two Congo neighboring countries

This is about the Republic of the Congo with its capital Brazzaville, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with its capital Kinshasa.

If you are curious about their location, here is an interactive Google map, you can zoom in and zoom out:

As you realize, the two cities are separated only by the Congo River. The border runs roughly in the middle of the river. So what is the distance?

Officially it could be described as zero, but in practical terms this is 15 miles of the water. Namely, Congo river is very wide, and it is the widest in the area between the two cities.

Kinshasa was founded in 1881 and this is a huge multi-million city. Brazzaville was founded in 1883 and it is also a multi-million people city though perhaps a bit smaller than Kinshasa.

A country within another country

This is something unique in every sense. Vatican is an official state and this is a city-state, all is run by the pope himself. It became independent from its surrounding Italy in 1929.

So here again, the distance is just the width of the city wall which you can see in the zoomable map below.

Did you know that Vatican is the second smallest capital city in the world? Please follow the link to see which is the smallest one.

Capital divided by a wall

Do you still remember the story about East Germany and West Germany? They had Berlin with a wall. Though East-Berlin was an official capital of East Germany only, and not of the West Germany. The latter had a capital in Bonn.

But not all stories of this type have finished. You have heard about the divided Cyprus? Its capital Nikosia is with a wall inside, so the Northern Nicosia claimed by Turkey is the capital of Northern Cyprus.

You can see the border in the zoomable map below. It is shown as a dashed line, so zoom in to see how it goes through the city:

If we accept the reality that these are two separate capitals, then the distance is the width of the wall, next to none.

---

So what do you think, what is the correct answer to the question? Perhaps the case of Vatican and Rome could be taken as the best option. Vatican is also a state with the same name as its capital, this is why it is in my list that includes such examples.

Note that there are some other capital cities that are also very close, one good example are Bratislava in Slovakia and Vienna in Austria.

Check also my text about the highest capital city in Europe. This site is all about capital cities in the world with a variety of questions and answers. It is updated on a regular basis so bookmark it and keep as a reference.

Please use the comment box below in the case of questions or comments. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.