The South American country home to the world's highest capital city is Bolivia, whose seat of government is La Paz.
La Paz sits at roughly 3,650 metres above sea level in a steep valley on Bolivia's Altiplano. Its altitude gives the city a striking mountain setting beneath Illimani and produces a cool subtropical highland climate, with a pronounced wet summer and dry winter. La Paz became Bolivia's administrative and political centre after the government moved there in the nineteenth century.
There is an important constitutional distinction. Sucre is Bolivia's constitutional capital and the seat of the judiciary, while La Paz is the seat of government and houses the executive and legislative branches. Trivia questions generally call La Paz the world's highest capital city because they use “capital” in the practical or administrative sense.
La Paz was founded by the Spanish in 1548 after an earlier settlement at Laja. Its full original name, Nuestra Señora de La Paz, means “Our Lady of Peace.” The nearby city of El Alto lies even higher, but it is a separate city rather than Bolivia's national capital.