Texas state troopers in riot gear try to break up a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Austin, Texas, April 24, 2024. (Photo by Jay Janner/USA Today Network via Reuters)

American actress Anya Taylor-Joy and Australian actor Chris Hemsworth are seen on May 08, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

A spoonbill appears to creep across the sky as it comes in to land on a nearby branch in the Orlando Wetlands, Florida in the second decade of June 2024. (Photo by Deborah Sandidge/Solent News)

Actors Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, fashion model Gigi Hadid and Hugh Jackman attend the premiere of “Deadpool and Wolverine” in New York City, New York, U.S., July 22, 2024. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

American fashion model Karlie Kloss poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP Photo)

In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Maddie Miller, of Tampa, Fla., raises her head during the World Famous Key Lime Pie Eating Championship Tuesday, July 4, 2023, in Key West, Fla. The gooey competition, whose entrants are forbidden to use their hands, has become a subtropical alternative to Nathan's Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest in New York City. (Photo by Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP Photo)

In this photograph taken on January 19, 2012, Indonesian schoolchildren hold on to iron cables as they cross a nearly-collapsed suspension bridge at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Indonesia's Banten province to reach their school. (Photo by Kris Aria/AFP Photo)

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)