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 cosplayer uses moving stairs during the first public day of the world's largest computer games fair Gamescom in Cologne, Germany August 23, 2017. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)
The worlds largest cruise ship, the 361 metres long, Harmony of the Seas, arrives in port for her mayden voyage, in Southampton, Britain May 17, 2016. (Photo by Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
Cracks are seen on one of the shrines at Swoyambhunath Stupa, a UNESCO world heritage site, after Saturday's earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal April 28, 2015. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)
Seals dressed in military uniforms swim during a show marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, at an aquatic park in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, Russia, May 9, 2015. (Photo by Evgeny Kozyrev/Reuters)
A man has an egg smashed on his head to raise money for charity during the World Egg Throwing Championships and Vintage Day in Swaton, Britain June 28, 2015. (Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters)