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Natural Earth 1:50m · 48 countries
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Flags of Asia Quiz

The flags of forty-eight Asian countries on a flat map, from Turkey and the Gulf to Japan and the islands of Indonesia. Click a country or drag the flag onto it: three tries per flag, then the map shows the answer. Three names, three hints and three skips are free for the round.

Drag the flag onto a country, or click the country. Name shows the country the flag belongs to, Hint opens all three facts about it; after three misses, or Skip, the map places it for you. Scroll or pinch to zoom in.

All 48 countries and their capitals, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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Flags of Asia Quiz

Drag every Asian flag onto its country on a flat map of Asia, three tries each. No labels.

Pan-Arab stripes, crescents and suns: the flag families of Asia

Asia's forty-eight flags sort into families, and the families are what make the map hard. Along the western edge, from Jordan to Yemen, the pan-Arab colours of red, white, black and green, taken from the flag of the Arab Revolt, are rearranged from country to country. Jordan and Palestine share black, white and green bands with a red triangle at the hoist; the only difference is Jordan's white seven-pointed star inside the triangle. Kuwait's green, white and red bands are cut by a black trapezoid at the hoist; the United Arab Emirates uses green, white and black with a solid red bar. Iraq and Yemen are both red, white and black: Iraq writes Allahu akbar in green Kufic script across the white, Yemen leaves it plain. Syria, in the version this deck carries, is green, white and black with three red stars.

A second family is the crescent. Turkey has it in white on red with a single star; Pakistan on dark green with a white band at the hoist; Singapore in white on red over white, with five stars in a ring beside it; Malaysia in yellow on a blue canton above fourteen red and white stripes, with a fourteen-pointed star; the Maldives in white on a green rectangle inside a red frame; Uzbekistan beside twelve stars on blue, white and green bands; Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan next to their own stars. A third is the sun: Kazakhstan's gold sun with thirty-two rays above a soaring steppe eagle on sky blue, with a strip of ornament at the hoist; Kyrgyzstan's forty-rayed yellow sun on red, with the tunduk, the crown of a yurt, at its centre; Taiwan's white twelve-rayed sun in a blue canton on red; the eight-rayed sun of the Philippines in a white triangle; Japan's plain red disc, and Bangladesh's red disc on green, set slightly towards the hoist.

The ones nobody confuses

Some flags are their own answer. Nepal is the only national flag in the world that is not a rectangle: two stacked crimson pennants with a blue border, a moon in the upper one and a sun in the lower. Bhutan's white dragon holds jewels in its claws across a field split diagonally between yellow and orange. Sri Lanka has a gold lion holding a sword on maroon, a bo leaf in each corner, and green and orange stripes at the hoist for the island's Muslim and Tamil communities. Cambodia is one of very few national flags with a building on it: the towers of Angkor Wat in white on a red band between two blue ones. South Korea's white flag carries the red and blue taegeuk with a black trigram in each corner; Mongolia's red, blue and red bands have the golden soyombo at the hoist. Brunei is yellow with a black and a white diagonal stripe and a red crest; Saudi Arabia is green with the shahada in white above a sword; Iran's green, white and red bands have a red emblem in the centre and the takbir repeated twenty-two times in white along the inner edges of the coloured bands. Georgia's white field carries a large red cross and four smaller ones; Lebanon sets a green cedar on red, white and red; Israel's white field has two blue stripes and the Star of David. Afghanistan appears here in the black, red and green tricolour with a white emblem, the flag of the republic that fell in 2021.

Neighbours that mirror each other

The rest are decided by small differences. Indonesia is red over white and nothing else; Singapore is the same two bands with the crescent and stars in the canton. Bahrain is white and red with five white points along the join; Qatar is white and maroon with nine, and longer in proportion than any other flag on the map. Laos is red, blue and red with a white disc in the centre; Cambodia is blue, red and blue with the temple; North Korea is blue, red and blue too, but with thin white stripes and a red star in a white disc towards the hoist; Thailand adds a second pair of white stripes to make five bands. Vietnam and China are both red with gold stars: Vietnam's single large star sits in the centre, China's large star and four small ones in the upper hoist.

India and Iran are both tricolours with green and a central emblem: India's bands are saffron, white and green with a navy wheel of twenty-four spokes; Iran's run green, white and red. Tajikistan reverses Iran's order to red, white and green, with a gold crown and seven stars. Armenia and Azerbaijan, side by side in the Caucasus, are both horizontal tricolours: Armenia red, blue and orange with no emblem, Azerbaijan blue, red and green with a crescent and an eight-pointed star. Oman is white, red and green with a red bar at the hoist carrying the national emblem of crossed swords and a khanjar dagger. Timor-Leste, the youngest state on the map, has a black triangle over a yellow one at the hoist of a red field, with a white star; Myanmar's yellow, green and red bands with a large white star date only from 2010.

All 48 countries and their capitals

48 countries are on this map, listed in alphabetical order with their capitals, area, population and one thing worth knowing about each — the same card Learning opens on the globe. All of them are in the deck.

  1. AfghanistanKabul652,230 km² · 42.6 million peopleKabul sits at about 1,800 m — one of the highest capital cities in the world.
  2. ArmeniaYerevan29,743 km² · 3 million peopleThe first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in 301 AD.
  3. AzerbaijanBaku86,600 km² · 10.4 million peopleBaku lies 28 m below sea level — the lowest-lying national capital on Earth.
  4. BahrainManama765 km² · 1.6 million peopleAn island kingdom joined to Saudi Arabia by the 25 km King Fahd Causeway.
  5. BangladeshDhaka147,570 km² · 173 million peopleOne of the most densely populated large countries, on the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra.
  6. BhutanThimphu38,394 km² · 787,000 peopleMeasures Gross National Happiness alongside GDP, and absorbs more carbon than it emits.
  7. BruneiBandar Seri Begawan5,765 km² · 462,000 peopleA small sultanate on Borneo whose wealth comes almost entirely from oil and gas.
  8. CambodiaPhnom Penh181,035 km² · 17.6 million peopleAngkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, appears on its flag.
  9. ChinaBeijing9,706,961 km² · 1.4 billion peopleThe many sections of the Great Wall add up to more than 20,000 km.
  10. GeorgiaTbilisi69,700 km² · 3.7 million peopleWine has been made here for about 8,000 years — the oldest known winemaking anywhere.
  11. IndiaNew Delhi3,287,590 km² · 1.5 billion peopleThe most populous country in the world since 2023, with 22 official languages.
  12. IndonesiaJakarta1,904,569 km² · 283 million peopleAbout 17,000 islands and the largest Muslim population of any country.
  13. IranTehran1,648,195 km² · 91.6 million peopleKnown as Persia until 1935; home to 27 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Persepolis.
  14. IraqBaghdad438,317 km² · 46 million peopleAncient Mesopotamia — where writing, the wheel and the first cities appeared.
  15. Israel20,770 km² · 9.9 million peopleRevived Hebrew as an everyday spoken language in the 20th century.
  16. JapanTokyo377,930 km² · 124 million peopleAn archipelago of over 14,000 islands; Greater Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area on Earth.
  17. JordanAmman89,342 km² · 11.6 million peoplePetra, the rose-red city carved into rock, was the Nabataean capital 2,000 years ago.
  18. KazakhstanAstana2,724,900 km² · 20.6 million peopleThe largest landlocked country; Baikonur launched the first human into space in 1961.
  19. KuwaitKuwait City17,818 km² · 4.9 million peopleSits on about 6% of the world's oil reserves; the Kuwaiti dinar is the highest-valued currency unit.
  20. KyrgyzstanBishkek199,951 km² · 7.2 million peopleAbout 90% mountains; Issyk-Kul is the world's second-largest alpine lake.
  21. LaosVientiane236,800 km² · 7.7 million peopleThe only landlocked country in Southeast Asia; the Mekong forms much of its western border.
  22. LebanonBeirut10,452 km² · 5.8 million peopleThe cedar on its flag has been a national emblem for millennia; Byblos is among the oldest cities.
  23. MalaysiaKuala Lumpur330,803 km² · 35.1 million peopleKuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004.
  24. MaldivesMalé300 km² · 521,000 peopleThe flattest country on Earth, averaging only 1.5 m above sea level.
  25. MongoliaUlan Bator1,564,110 km² · 3.5 million peopleThe least densely populated country; about a quarter of its people are still nomadic herders.
  26. MyanmarNaypyidaw676,578 km² · 54.5 million peopleBagan holds over 2,000 Buddhist temples and pagodas built between the 11th and 13th centuries.
  27. NepalKathmandu147,181 km² · 30.6 million peopleHome to Mount Everest and eight of the ten highest peaks; the only non-rectangular national flag.
  28. North KoreaPyongyang120,538 km² · 26.4 million peoplePyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel, 105 storeys tall, has stood unfinished since 1992.
  29. OmanMuscat309,500 km² · 5.2 million peopleFrankincense from its southern Dhofar region was traded across the ancient world.
  30. PakistanIslamabad881,912 km² · 251 million peopleK2, the world's second-highest mountain, stands on its northern border.
  31. Palestine6,220 km² · 5.5 million peopleJericho, near the Dead Sea, is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities, over 10,000 years old.
  32. PhilippinesManila342,353 km² · 116 million peopleOver 7,600 islands; the Banaue rice terraces are about 2,000 years old.
  33. QatarDoha11,586 km² · 3 million peopleHosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup; nearly 90% of residents are foreign nationals.
  34. Saudi ArabiaRiyadh2,149,690 km² · 33.9 million peopleHolds Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest cities; the Rub' al Khali is the largest sand desert.
  35. SingaporeSingapore710 km² · 5.9 million peopleA city-state that has grown by about 25% through land reclamation since independence.
  36. South KoreaSeoul100,210 km² · 51.7 million peopleThe Hangul alphabet was invented in 1443 by King Sejong so that everyone could learn to read.
  37. Sri LankaColombo65,610 km² · 23.1 million peopleOnce called Ceylon; still one of the world's biggest tea exporters.
  38. SyriaDamascus185,180 km² · 24.6 million peopleDamascus is often called the oldest continuously inhabited capital in the world.
  39. TaiwanTaipei36,193 km² · 23.4 million peopleProduces most of the world's advanced semiconductors.
  40. TajikistanDushanbe143,100 km² · 10.4 million peopleOver 90% mountains; the Pamir Highway is the second-highest international road.
  41. ThailandBangkok513,120 km² · 71.7 million peopleThe only Southeast Asian country never colonised by a European power.
  42. Timor-LesteDili14,874 km² · 1.4 million peopleAsia's youngest country, independent since 2002.
  43. TurkeyAnkara783,562 km² · 85.3 million peopleIstanbul is the only city on two continents; Göbekli Tepe is the oldest known temple, about 11,000 years old.
  44. TurkmenistanAshgabat488,100 km² · 7.4 million peopleThe Darvaza gas crater, the 'Gates of Hell', has burned since 1971.
  45. United Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi83,600 km² · 10.7 million peopleDubai's Burj Khalifa, at 828 m, is the tallest building in the world.
  46. UzbekistanTashkent447,400 km² · 36.4 million peopleSamarkand and Bukhara were jewels of the Silk Road; one of two doubly landlocked countries.
  47. VietnamHanoi331,212 km² · 101 million peopleThe world's second-largest coffee exporter; Hạ Long Bay has about 1,600 limestone islands.
  48. YemenSana'a527,968 km² · 39.4 million peopleSocotra island has dragon's blood trees found nowhere else; Sana'a's old city is over 2,500 years old.

Questions about these flags

Which Asian flag is not a rectangle?

Nepal's, the only such national flag in the world. It is two crimson pennants, one above the other, with a dark blue border, a white moon in the upper pennant and a white sun in the lower. Crimson is the colour of the rhododendron, Nepal's national flower, and the sun and moon express the hope that the nation lasts as long as they do.

Why do so many Middle Eastern flags share the same four colours?

Red, white, black and green are the pan-Arab colours, first combined on the flag of the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule in 1916 and traditionally linked to the great Arab dynasties. Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Yemen and Syria all use some arrangement of them, which is why the badge, star or script on each one matters.

What is written on the flags of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran?

Saudi Arabia's green flag carries the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, in white above a sword. Iraq's white band carries the takbir, Allahu akbar, in green Kufic script. Iran repeats the same takbir twenty-two times in a stylised white script along the edges of its green and red bands, framing the red emblem in the centre.

More maps

Capitals on the same map: Asian capitals. Other maps: Europe, Americas, Africa. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.