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)

A truck driver cleans the mirror of his decorated truck in Charsadda outside Peshawar, Pakistan October 18, 2016. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

In this Tuesday, December 20, 2016 photo, Mohammad Ramzan, right, reacts while talking to The Associated Press with his young bride Saima in Jampur, Pakistan. Saima was given as a bride to the older man by her father so he could marry the groom’s sister, a practice of exchanging girls that is entrenched in conservative regions of Pakistan. It even has its own name in Urdu: Watta Satta, “give and take”. A mix of interests – family obligations, desire for sons, a wish to hand off a girl to a husband – can lead to a young teen in an a marriage she never sought. (Photo by K.M. Chaudhry/AP Photo)

An effigy representing Judas Iscariot burns as some people wearing masks watch during Holy Week in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, April 4, 2021. The Burning of Judas is an Easter-time ritual in many communities, where an effigy of Judas Iscariot is hanged on Good Friday, then burned on Easter Sunday. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

Protesting women shout slogans during a demonstration against sexual violence in front of the governor's mansion in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 3, 2021. The demonstrators denounce the inaction and slowness of the state in implementing the executive order declaring a state of emergency against gender-based violence. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/AFP Photo)

A Palestinian youth swings a homemade fireworks sparkler, as people celebrate on the night ahead of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City on April 11, 2021. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Mohammad Ramzan, 60, a traditional goatskin water carrier also known as a mashki, fills a bag with water from a handpump to deliver to nearby homes during the fasting month of Ramadan, as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Karachi, Pakistan on April 23, 2021. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Filipino Muslims pray outside the Blue Mosque as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr on May 13, 2021 in Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, during which Muslims in countries around the world spend time with family, offer gifts and often give to charity. Parts of the Philippines remain under strict lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with religious venues restricted to 20 percent capacity only. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)