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)

Annabelle, 13, and her sister Estelle, 10, both artistic gymnasts from Borna, hang from the rings during their training, ahead of the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023, the world's largest sports movement for people with intellectual disabilities, at the Federal base for competitive gymnastic artistics in Chemnitz, Germany on May 6, 2023. (Photo by Annegret Hilse/Reuters)

A dancer of Potosi's government departament, poses with traditional costumes at the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, in Uyuni, Bolivia, on November 7, 2020. (Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP Photo)

Guests watch “Trolls World Tour”, in the rain at the Four Brothers Drive In Theatre amid the coronavirus pandemic, Friday, May 15, 2020, in Amenia, N.Y. (Photo by John Minchillo/AP Photo)

Merfolk gather at MerMania 2017, the world's largest gathering of amateur and professional mermaids and mermen in North Carloina, USA on January 21, 2017. (Photo by Brian Cahn/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

The world-famous sprinter Usain Bolt, 30, took a break from the track to celebrate Carnival as revellers doused each other with paint in Trinidad and Tobago on February 26, 2017. (Photo by David Wears/Splash News and Pictures)

Marchers kiss as they walk down 5th Avenue as they part in the 2019 World Pride NYC and Stonewall 50th LGBTQ Pride Parade in New York, U.S., June 30, 2019. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)