Members of Taliban take pictures of the devastated village of Mazar Dara following a deadly magnitude-6 earthquake that struck Afghanistan, Kunar province, Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025. (Photo by Sayed Hassib/Reuters)

Beatriz Hatz, of the U.S., competes at Women's Long Jump -T64 final at the Stade de France stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Saturday, August 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP 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)

A young YPJ recruit (in pink) arrives to the training base for her first day in training near Derek City, Syria. The YPJ schedule is demanding and requires discipline – new soldiers in training get about 6 hours of sleep a night and wake up at 4 AM to begin exercising; afterwards, their day consists of a full schedule of drills and classroom lessons. Before joining the YPJ many of the girls had never participated in physical activity or sports before. (Photo by Erin Trieb/NBC News)

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

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)

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)