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)

Performers in costume wait to take part in the carnival on the main Parade day of the Notting Hill Carnival in west London on August 29, 2022. London's Notting Hill carnival celebrates Caribbean culture, at a carnival considered the largest street demonstration in Europe. (Photo by Susannah Ireland/AFP Photo)

People perform acroyoga style exercices at South Pointe in Miami Beach, Florida, on February 8, 2023. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP Photo)

Rows of workers shelter under umbrellas from the scorching heat as they painstakingly sort through a red carpet of millions of chilli peppers in Bogra, Bangladesh on October 3, 2023. They sort the rotten and broken chilli peppers out to separate the poor quality ones which won't sell. In a line, the pickers who are paid less than £3 for a 10-hour shift slowly move forward with their baskets to separate the bad from the good after the chilies have been dried in the sun for a week. (Photo by Joy Saha/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Two women look at the Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption from the distance in Los Llanos de Ariadne in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, late 05 October 2021 (issued 06 October 2021). The main cone of the La Palma volcano suffered a partial collapse of its structure 03 October, while effusive activity has increased after 15 days of its beginning. According to experts the volcano is far from ending its volcanic activity. (Photo by Miguel Calero/EPA/EFE)

Alina Serban (L) poses during a photo session for the poster of her show in Bucharest on October 20, 2021. Roma actress and playwright Alina Serban grew up watching TV and going to the theatre without any stories “with or about people like us” – something she set out to change, becoming the first to have her work on the stage of Bucharest's National Theatre. (Photo by Bogdan Dinca/AFP Photo)

Cosplayer Barbie Chula poses for a photo on the last day of the New York Comic Con 2021 at the Jacob Javits Center on October 10, 2021. The four-day event is the largest pop culture event on the East Coast. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

April Haze, a San Jose-based stripper, teaches a pole dance class to her students at Revel Room Studios in Milpitas, California, April 15, 2021. As some of the United States' estimated 3,821 strip clubs start to open up again, women who work as strippers are confronting a transformed industry. Revenue in the industry is estimated to have decreased 17.4% in 2020 and is forecast to fall another 1.5% this year, according to research by IBISWorld. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small/Reuters)