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 woman takes a dip in a font on the eve of the Orthodox Epiphany in central Moscow, Russia, January 18, 2016. Orthodox believers mark Epiphany on January 19 by immersing themselves in icy waters regardless of the weather. (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

A Malaysian Hindu devotee (C) reacts in a state of trance as she walks towards the Batu caves temple during the Thaipusam festival celebrations in Kuala Lumpur on January 24, 2016. More than a million Hindus celebrate the festival of “Thaipusam” at temples across the country. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)

A wide-angle view shows the ascent of the shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In the seconds after ignition, the rocket engines' hot blast began the process of destruction. (Photo by NASA)

A vendor prepares paan, a betel nut-based chewable stimulant at a flower market in Kolkata, India, January 18, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Owner Elizabeth Wilson groomes her Chinese Crested and Coton De Tulear dogs during the annual Crufts Dog Show at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, Britain, March 10, 2016. The world's largest dog show will be held from March 10 to 13 with 22,000 dogs competing for the world class title of Crufts Best In Show. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/EPA)

Li Guoqiang talks on his phone outside his house at Guangfuli neighbourhood, in Shanghai, China, April 1, 2016. Li, 38, is a deliveryman who rents a place at Guangfuli. In a corner of Shanghai, surrounded by a cement wall, lies one of the world's most valuable fields of debris and garbage. On paper, the Guangfuli neighbourhood is a real estate investor's dream: a plot in the middle of one of the world's most expensive and fast-rising property markets. But the reality is more like a developer's nightmare, thanks to hundreds of people living there who have refused to budge from their ramshackle homes for nearly 16 years as the local authority sought to clear the land for new construction. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Ismail Mustafa, seen in 2007. “I was collecting mushrooms on the hill near here. I didn’t see the mine. There was a huge explosion. When I woke up I saw that both my legs were gone; I thought my life was over. My brother and another guy were with me. They made a stretcher from sticks and tied it together with clothing. It took two hours to get off the mountain. ‘My daughter has also been injured. She found a shell and brought it into the house and put it on the fire. She didn’t know what she was doing at the time – she was only three. She is blind and has lost an arm”. (Photo by Sean Sutton for the Mines Advisory Group/The Guardian)