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)

Children play football in Bujumbura, Burundi on March 19, 2015. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

A brown capuchin monkey holds a fruit in the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 5, 2013. (Photo by Pablo Porciuncula/AFP Photo)

NHRA top fuel driver Spencer Massey explodes the engine of his dragster on fire during the Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway on October 17, 2021. Massey was unhurt in the incident. (Photo by Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)

Visitors look at an elephant swimming in a pool at Khao Kheow Zoo in Chonburi, east of Bangkok, Thailand on February 4, 2020. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Members of the Apollo Rainbow Dancers stretch out in special A train late on May 4, 1985, in New York. The legendary Apollo Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary in an official reopening after a 15 month refurbishing with a celebrity studded evening. (Photo by Ray Stubblebine/AP Photo)

A raccoon scratches herself on the window sill of the Paige Donnelly Law Firm on the 23rd floor of the UBS Plaza building in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S., June 12, 2018, in this image obtained from social media. (Photo by Evan Frost/MPR News via Reuters)

A Flame Skimmer or Firecracker Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) rests on a small branch in Topanga, California, USA, 18 June 2018. The Flame Skimmer dragonfly is found in the Western United States near ponds and creeks. (Photo by Mike Nelson/EPA/EFE)