A Palestinian sits among the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Israeli offensive, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

A kite is flown at a park during the ancient annual public picnic day, called Sizdeh Bedar, on the 13th and last day of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year holiday, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A woman reacts with Samoyed puppies as she performs yoga on International Yoga Day, in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 21, 2025. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Shoes worn by cosplayer dressed as Elizabeth Goddess during the Otamatsuri Anime x Manga convention held in Nairobi, Kenya on August 24, 2023. (Photo by Sarah Waiswa/The Guardian)

A worker walks through a salt pan on the eve of May Day or Labour Day on the outskirts of the southern Indian city of Chennai April 30, 2014. India is the third largest salt producing country in the world after China and U.S. with global annual production about 230 million tonnes, according to government data. (Photo by Reuters/Babu)

German fan Didi Senft known as El Diablo cheers as the pack rides past during the 234.5 km seventh stage of the 101st edition of the Tour de France cycling race on July 11, 2014 between Epernay and Nancy, northeastern France. (Photo by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken on January 19, 2012, Indonesian schoolchildren hold on to iron cables as they cross a nearly-collapsed suspension bridge at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Indonesia's Banten province to reach their school. (Photo by Kris Aria/AFP Photo)

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)