Cities of Asia

19 to explore

• Watch City Ankara Ankara is the capital of Türkiye, in the interior of Anatolia, about 200 kilometers from the Black Sea. People have lived here since the Stone Age, and Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans all left buildings behind. It became the capital in 1923, and today it is a city of government, universities and museums.
• Watch City Baghdad Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the Tigris River in the land once called Mesopotamia. It was founded in 762 as a round city, and for about 500 years it was one of the greatest cities in the world and a great center of learning, where scholars studied math, medicine and the stars. Today it is Iraq's largest city.
• Watch City Baku Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, curves around a bay on the Caspian Sea, the world's largest inland body of water. Its old walled town, with the Maiden Tower and a palace of the Shirvan shahs, is a World Heritage Site, and oil has made the city important for more than 150 years.
• Watch City Bangkok Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, lies on the delta of the Chao Phraya River, about 40 kilometers from the sea. It became the capital in 1782, when the new royal palace and temples were built. Once called the 'Venice of the East' for its canals, it is now a huge, busy city with skyscrapers and an elevated railway.
• Watch City Beijing Beijing, the capital of China, has been the country's capital for most of the last 600 years. At its heart is the Forbidden City, the emperors' palace. About 21.8 million people lived in the Beijing municipality at the end of 2024.
• Watch City Damascus Damascus, the capital of Syria, grew beside a river in a green oasis at the edge of the desert. People have lived there for thousands of years, and many scholars think it may be the oldest city in the world that has been lived in all the time. Its walled Old City, with its Great Mosque, markets and courtyard houses, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Watch City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City, once called Saigon, is Vietnam's largest city and the economic heart of the country. It lies on the Saigon River, north of the Mekong Delta. Since merging with two neighboring provinces in 2025, it has more than 14 million people, and in 2024 it opened its first metro line.
• Watch City Hong Kong Hong Kong, on the south coast of China, grew around one of the world's great natural harbors. It was a British colony for 156 years and has been a special administrative region of China since 1997. About 7.5 million people lived there in mid-2026.
• Watch City Istanbul Istanbul is the biggest city in Türkiye, built on both sides of the Bosporus, the narrow strait between Europe and Asia. Once called Byzantium and then Constantinople, it was the capital of two great empires. About 15.7 million people lived in Istanbul province in 2023.
• Watch City Jakarta Jakarta, Indonesia's largest city and its capital, lies on the northwest coast of the island of Java, where the Ciliwung River meets the Java Sea. About 11 million people live there (2025). Indonesia is building a new capital called Nusantara, but under the law Jakarta stays the capital until the president signs a decree moving it.
• Watch City Jerusalem Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world, built on hills in the Middle East. Inside the walls of its Old City stand places that are deeply important to Jews, Christians and Muslims, and pilgrims and visitors come from all over the world.
• Watch City Kyoto Kyoto was the capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years, from 794 to 1868. Its streets still follow a grid planned in 794. About 1.4 million people live there (2022), among hundreds of old temples, shrines, gardens and workshops.
• Watch City Mecca Mecca is a city in western Saudi Arabia, in a dry valley ringed by mountains, about 70 kilometers from the Red Sea. About 2.4 million people lived there at the 2022 census. Its Great Mosque surrounds the Kaaba, and in 2026 more than 1.7 million pilgrims came to the city for the hajj.
• Watch City Mumbai Mumbai, once called Bombay, is a giant port city on India's west coast, by the Arabian Sea. It grew on seven small islands that were joined into one, and it is India's main center of business and banking. At the 2011 census, more than 12 million people lived in the city and more than 18 million in its urban area.
• Watch City Seoul Seoul is the capital of South Korea, on the Han River. It became a capital in 1394, and its old palaces and city gates still stand among skyscrapers. About 9.7 million people lived there in 2020, and its subway is one of the main ways to get around.
• Watch City Shanghai Shanghai is China's most populous city, on the coast where the great Yangtze River meets the East China Sea. Once a small fishing village, it grew into one of the world's busiest seaports. About 24.9 million people lived in Shanghai in 2020, and the towers of Pudong rise across the Huangpu River.
• Watch City Tbilisi Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, lies along the Mtkvari River between mountain ridges. Its name comes from the Georgian word for "warm", after the hot springs that feed its old bathhouses. At the 2024 census, 1,331,485 people lived in the self-governing city.
• Watch City Tehran Tehran, the capital of Iran, spreads up the slopes of the Alborz Mountains, with snowy peaks to the north and desert to the south. Once a small village, and later a market town known for its pomegranates, it became the capital in 1786. Today it is a huge, modern city with an old roofed bazaar, a palace that is a World Heritage Site and the 435-meter Milad Tower.
• Watch City Tokyo Tokyo is the capital of Japan, at the head of Tokyo Bay. It began as the small town of Edo and was renamed Tokyo, the Eastern Capital, in 1868. About 14.3 million people lived in the Tokyo Metropolis in 2022, and Greater Tokyo is Japan's largest city region.