Which Capital in Asia Has the Highest Elevation?

There are several capitals in Asia with a very high elevation, and the highest of them are presented here in the text, so keep reading.

All three of them are shown in the interactive map below. You can zoom in to see more details.

Thimphu

This capital of Bhutan is at the elevation of 2334 meters (7657 ft). You can compare this with Addis Ababa the highest capital in Africa which is only a few meters higher. According to Wikipedia, this is the fifth highest capital city in the world.

The picture above which shows Thimphu is by Christopher J. Fynn / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 & GFDL. This is the largest city in the country, and it became the capital in 1955 instead of their ancient city of Punakha.

But for a capital, this is a small city with a bit more than 115000 people in total. Bhutan became a member of the United Nations in 1971. This had an effect on the capital development as well. Please see more about the city in this video:

Sanaʽa

Sanaa is slightly lower than Thimphu, but its elevation is still impressive 2250 meters (7382 ft), and this makes it the 7th highest capital in the world.

This is also the largest city in Yemen and its population is more than four millions. Note that this is still the capital of the country although the government was moved to Aden in 2015 because of the war, and this city currently serves as a temporary capital.

The Old City of Sanaa is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to legends, the city was founded by Shem, the son of Noah. The current name is in written historic documents since the 3rd century. Please see more in this video:

Tehran

This huge city is at an elevation of 1830 meters (6003 feet). Its population is over 9 million, and over 16 million in the larger metropolitan area. The city is the second largest metropolitan area in the Middle East, after Cairo.

It is at the place where in ancient times there was a prominent Median city of Rhages. This is also the place of the ancient city of Ray that dates back over 8000 years.

Tehran became the capital of Iran in 1786. It is interesting that this is the 32nd national capital of Persia. You can see more in this video, please have a look:

So this was the list of the capitals in Asia with the highest elevation, and you might want to know that it continues with Kabul in Afghanistan and Kathmandu in Nepal.

You might want to check also my text about the westernmost capital city in Asia. But read also about things to do in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

Thank you for reading. Let me know if you have questions, there is a comment box below. Bookmark this site and keep it as a reference, it is all about capitals. Have a nice day.