The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word DAMASCUS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
D
A
M
A
S
C
U
S
More clues leading to the result DAMASCUS
- Five hundred gather with copper in capital
- Olympic event, for one, a master’s city
- American furious about active Nazis getting hold of essentially incalculable capital
- Barrier a second copper’s assembled in capital
- The end of the road for one who saw the light
- Terrible Saudi scam I exposed in foreign capital
- Lawyer unravelling scam with American capital
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "capital" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case capital = damascus.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.