A woman looks out from her stall selling traditional garments and textiles at a market in Ashgabat February 8, 2012. (Photo by Aman Mehinli/Reuters)

The "Wedding Palace" (Bagt Kosgi) is located in the southwest of Ashgabat. while the building was designed in a sphere shape surrounded by the eight-corner "Oguzkhan Star" on the corners of the building. There is a map of Turkmenistan on the outer space of the sphere whose radius is 32 meters and it can be seen from far away as the sun reflects off it.

“These are the astonishing images of the very aptly named door to hell, a fiery crater thats baffled scientist and has been flaming away for more than 40 years. The crater is 230-feet wide and situated near Derweze village in Turkmenistan”. – Caters News. (Photo by William Keeping/Caters News)

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)