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)

October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)

Charles Manson plays up to the camera during a 1988 interview with reporter Geraldo Rivera at San Quentin prison in 1988. Authorities say Manson, cult leader and mastermind behind 1969 deaths of actress Sharon Tate and several others, died on Sunday, November 19, 2017. He was 83. (Photo by AP Photo)

Tactics reminiscent of the early American frontier days are now being used in Vietnam. Lieutenant Commander Donald D. Sheppard, UBN, of Coronado, California, aims a flaming arrow at a bamboo hut concealing a fortified Viet Cong bunker on the banks of the Bassac River, Vietnam on December 8, 1967. (Photo by AP Photo)

Most Russians intending to vote for Vladimir Putin in Sunday's election say stability is at the root of their faith in their candidate – though many young voters believe it's time for a change of leader. Putin, 65, is expected to win a fourth term in office with 69 percent of the vote, according to the latest survey by a state-run pollster. Reuters correspondents and photographers who travelled around the country talking to voters ahead of the March 18 election found nothing to contradict expectation of an emphatic Putin victory. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

New program of Munich's Krone Circus performed by two American artists “The Carmenas” during a press conference in Munich, Germany on January 10, 1962, while sitting in a coffee-house. (Photo by Heinrich Sanden Sr./AP Photo)

Sulphur miners haul sulphur up an arduous path out of Indonesia’s Ijen volcano. The average carry out of the volcano is 70 kilograms per load per miner. The all-time record carry was 120 kilograms in one load. Extraordinary numbers given most of the miners only weigh around 55 kilograms. Ijen volcano, Indonesia, 2012. (Photo by Hugh Brown/South West News Service)

Bollywood actress and former p*rn star Sunny Leone stands with her wax likeness during its unveiling at the Madame Tussauds museum in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, September 18, 2018. The statue unveiled Tuesday represents the 37-year-old celebrity's acceptance by mainstream Indian society even as conservative Indian politicians condemn her p*rn-star past. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)