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)

People watch a crocodile with a used motorcycle tyre around its neck on a river in Palu, Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia September 20, 2016 in this picture taken by Antara Foto. Residents suspect the tyre was garbage thrown into the river before it became trapped around the crocodile's neck, reported Antara. (Photo by Mohamad Hamzah/Reuters/Antara Foto)

This handout picture taken on December 13, 2016 and released on December 14, 2016 by the Tiergarten Schoenbrunn zoo in Vienna, Austria, shows a baby sloth eating some salad as it hangs on it's mother's belly in their enclosure. The baby was born already on November 18, 2016, but according to the zoo it could be picured for the first time only now as it usually hides in it's mother's soft coat. (Photo by Daniel Zupanc/AFP Photo)

A baby elephant eats in a swamp in Amboseli national park, Kenya, March 19, 2017. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Ferrari driver Fabio Barone and his Ferrari 458 Italia competes against a Roman chariot drawn by two horses on “Ben Hur” movie set at Cinecitta World amusement park on May 11, 2017 in Castel Romano near Rome. (Photo by Andreas Solaro/AFP Photo)

In this Monday, June 5, 2017, file photo, an Indian woman walks as se searches for recyclable materials at a garbage dumping site on the outskirts of Gauhati, Assam state, India. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

Female Siberian tiger Dasha yawns in the new enclosure at the zoo in Duisburg, Germany, 30 March 2016. The new facility is three times larger than the old one and will be opened to the public on the same day. (Photo by Roland Weihrauch/EPA)

A hippopotamus performs during a show at the circus in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, July 7, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)