The Forgotten City was the primary city/community of the ancient Cetra civilization. It is located on the arctic Northern Continent, not far from the Icicle Inn and the Northern Cave. The city itself has now been abandoned for about two millennia. After Jenova nearly wiped out the Cetra, the few survivors left and gradually became assimilated into human culture.

A few of the houses still stand, many still containing furniture, artifacts, and even beds, indicating the area appears just as it did when it was abandoned long ago. As far as architecture goes, the inhabitants of the Capital incorporated nature into their buildings, many having roofs made up from Conch Shells and other naturally occurring objects.

Some points of interest in the Forgotten City include the Holy Machine, which allows one to communicate with the planet, and an underground section of town consisting of several crystal buildings surrounding a Cetra altar. It was at this altar that Aeris Gainsborough, while praying to Holy, was killed by Sephiroth. Her grave is the deep underground lake of the city.

Two years after the defeat of Sephiroth; Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo used the Capital as their base, bringing Tseng and Elena there to torture them, and later the Geostigma infected children.

For now the capital is as quiet and abandoned as it has been for the last two millenium.