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)

A Palestinian boy holds an umbrella as he runs near houses that witnesses said were destroyed or damaged by Israeli shelling during the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, on a rainy day in the east of Gaza City November 16, 2014. (Photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

The Royal Castle is seen a veil of heavy winter smog in Budapest, Hungary on January 30, 2017. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

A couple wears face masks as they share a moment during sunset on January 31, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. With over 9800 confirmed cases of Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) around the world, the virus has so far claimed over 200 lives. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

In this Tuesday, June 19, 2018 filer, clouds are illuminated by the sun setting sun over a church during the 2018 soccer World Cup in Podolsk near Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A view of the fireworks during the Edge at Hudson Yard's 4th of July Celebration at Edge at Hudson Yards on July 04, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Edge at Hudson Yards)

Workers carve ice art works at Harbin Ice and Snow World one day before the 32th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin city, China's northern Heilongjiang province, 04 January 2016. The festival will run from 05 January to 05 February. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA)