An activist of the anti-G8 forum “Block G8” shows his middle finger to a police helicopter passing overhead June 07, 2007 at Bollhagen, near Heiligendamm, Germany. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

Members of the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute team perform during the Bethpage Air Show as part of a Memorial Day event at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York, U.S., May 25, 2019. (Photo by Johnny Milano/Reuters)

A view of a Gucci's advertisement campaign selected for an exhibition to celebrate creative vision of a creative director Alessandro Michele at Gucci Garden Archetypes, in Florence, Italy, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Photo by Antonio Calanni/AP Photo)

A woman jumps as a friend (not seen) takes a photo in front of a large drawing of Pope Francis depicting him as a superhero near the Vatican January 29, 2014. The Argentinian Pope is shown taking off into air with his right fist clenched in a classic Superman style. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

Milena Jami whips her llama to win the first place in the a race for children of ages seven and eight at the Llanganates National Park, Ecuador, Saturday, February 8, 2020. Wooly llamas, an animal emblematic of the Andean mountains in South America, become the star for a day each year when Ecuadoreans dress up their prized animals for children to ride them in 500-meter races. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

Racegoers try to shelter from the rain during day one of the Cazoo Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse in Surrey, United Kingdom on Friday, June 4, 2021. (Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin shows a hold to a young judo wrestler at the Regional Judo Center at the Arena Sports Complex in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on January 24, 2012, during his visit to the region. Putin is known for his passion for judo, in which he has a black belt. (Photo by AFP Photo/STR)

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)