The walls of Sydney's Town Hall Station are bedecked to resemble a Woolworths' supermarket shelf in Australia's first virtual supermarket, at Town Hall Station on February 19, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Marianna Massey/Getty Images for Woolworths)

A young man shows off his new Sony PlayStation Vita portable gaming device that he just bought at the Sony Store during the official German launch of the new Vita on February 21, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. Several hundred video gaming enthusiasts waited hours in line to be among the first to buy the new device. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

A sculpture entitled “Powerless Structures, Fig.101” designed by Danish artist Michael Elmgreen and Norwegian artist Ingar Dragset is unveiled on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square on February 23, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

German kickboxer Christine Theiss (L) hits challenger Olja Zerajic of Bosnia during their WKA middleweight title fight at Postpalast on March 2, 2012 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alexandra Beier/Bongarts/Getty Images)

“Dubai is sometimes called the “City of Gold” because of its stunning growth from a sleepy Gulf port to a world-famous business crossroads in the space of a single generation. Its nickname has a literal meaning for traders in the precious metal. The city is building itself up as a center for the gold trade, between sources in Africa and consumers in the rising economies of China and India”. – Kamran Jebreili via Associated Press

Photo: A gold press operator collects 10 gram gold blanks to press them with the logo of the Emirates Gold company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Gold prices remained relatively steady in 2012, close to $1,700 an ounce. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo)

Ebiowei, 48, carries an empty oil container on his head to a place where it would be filled with refined fuel at an illegal refinery site near river Nun in Nigeria's oil state of Bayelsa November 27, 2012. Locals in the industry say workers can earn $50 to $60 a day. Thousands of people in Nigeria engage in a practice known locally as “oil bunkering” – hacking into pipelines to steal crude then refining it or selling it abroad. The practice, which leaves oil spewing from pipelines for miles around, managed to lift around a fifth of Nigeria's two million barrel a day production last year according to the finance ministry. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

A life-size interactive inflatable sculpture of Stonehenge called “Sacrilege 2012” by English contemporary artist Jeremy Deller on display as part of the “Inflation!” exhibition curated by Mobile M + on April 24, 2013 in Hong Kong. The inflatable artwork is one of six on display as part of the exhibition which is open from April 25, 2013 until June 9, 2013. (Photo by Jessica Hromas)

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)