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)

Peru, Iquitos. Restaurant in Bellavista, an area by the Amazon on April 2005. (Photo by Jean-Claude Coutausse)

ATTENTION PLEASE! This publication is NOT about cute animals! This is a compilation of photographs of DIFFERENT content! Some photos may SHOCK YOU.

Photo: An eleven-week-old lion cub growls as she plays with a stuffed toy at the San Francisco Zoo April 25, 2003 in San Francisco, California. The cub's mother, Kita, died two days after giving birth to her and her brother. Zookeepers have hand fed and cared for the two surviving cubs around the clock since their mother died. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A Buddhist nun walks along a path as a stupa is seen at a temple in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka October 16, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

People watch a crocodile with a used motorcycle tyre around its neck on a river in Palu, Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia September 20, 2016 in this picture taken by Antara Foto. Residents suspect the tyre was garbage thrown into the river before it became trapped around the crocodile's neck, reported Antara. (Photo by Mohamad Hamzah/Reuters/Antara Foto)

Storm erupts over Pacific Ocean as plane zooms past at 37,000 ft. The amazing picture shows a massive cloud erupting against a starry night sky as the off-duty airman Santiago Borja flew over the Pacific near Panama City. He had just moments to take the breathtaking snap as the Boeing 767 zoomed by at 37,000 ft on its way from North America to Ecuador. He also had take the picture perfectly in time with the flash of lightning to capture the storm in all its glory. (Photo by Santiago Borja/Solent News)

The moon rises behind the skyline and financial district in Toronto, November 25, 2015. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Reuters)

A wounded Syrian girl looks on at a make shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015. At least 20 civilians and wounded or trapped 200 in Douma, a monitoring group said, just six days after regime air strikes killed more than 100 people and sparked international condemnation of one of the bloodiest government attacks in Syria's war. (Photo by Abd Doumany/AFP Photo)