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)

Fearless daredevils clamber up the worlds highest man-made climbing wall – running up the face of a 540ft dam. The Diga di Luzzone in Switzerland is considered by climbers as the Everest of wall climbing. (Photo by Ilana Marcus/Caters News)

A wounded Syrian girl looks on at a make shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015. At least 20 civilians and wounded or trapped 200 in Douma, a monitoring group said, just six days after regime air strikes killed more than 100 people and sparked international condemnation of one of the bloodiest government attacks in Syria's war. (Photo by Abd Doumany/AFP Photo)

Even upside down, a stereophonic turntable continues to play and hold the interest of Helen Sorowitz, a visitor to the New York High Fidelity Show in New York, September 9, 1960. (Photo by Ruben Goldberg/AP Photo)

People take part in a protest outside the Department for Education, London, Sunday August 16, 2020, in response to the A-level results. The British government has been urged to “get a grip” over how grades are being awarded to school students, who were unable to take exams earlier this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. The latest confusion emerged late Saturday when England’s exam regulator launched a review on its own just-published guidance on how students can appeal grades awarded under a complicated system. (Photo by London News Pictures/The Sun)

A reveller falls over into the road in Newcastle, Britain, July 4, 2020 on the day pubs and restaurants were finally allowed to reopen. (Photo by North News and Pictures)

A classic American car is wrapped in plastic to prevent sea salt from corroding it in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Vintage cars in Cuba are part of daily life with most classic cars being used as taxis and to transport tourists. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

A driver pulls a handgun on protesters after they broke his trucks lights on March 28, 2021 in Salem, Oregon. The protesters clashed with occupants of vehicles that had participated in an American flag-waving car caravan, despite law enforcements efforts to to keep the groups separate. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)