A BASE jumper is pictured against the skyline shrouded in a thick haze during the Kuala Lumpur Tower International Jump in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 02 October 2015. More than 100 BASE jumpers take part in this extreme sport event, which enters its 15th year. The haze hovering over Malaysia is caused by the ongoing plantation and forest fires in the nearby Indonesian provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan. (Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA)

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 meteorite of the swarm of meteorites Perseida flies above the Ujudvar TV Tower as seen from Ujudvar, Hungary, late Friday, August 13, 2021. Perseidas, one of the brightest meteorite swarms, consist of a multitude of stellar particles which due to their high speed glow up and burn by entering Earth's atmosphere. (Photo by Gyorgy Varga/MTI via AP Photo)

A train attendant wearing a protective face mask stands on a train to Wuhan, at the railway station in Beijing, China, 29 March 2020. Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, partly lifted the lockdown allowing people to enter the city after more than two months. Chinese authorities eased the quarantine measures as cases of Covid-19 across China have plummeted, according to Chinese government figures. (Photo by Roman Pilipey/EPA/EFE)

Palestinian protesters take cover amid clashes with Israeli security forces during a raid in the old city of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on May 9, 2023. The Israeli army said its troops had entered Nablus in the northern West Bank, with residents telling AFP they heard explosions during the raid. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics treated 145 injuries in Nablus, the majority from tear gas inhalation while a dozen people were shot with live fire. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP Photo)

Palestinian queue to fill containers with water in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 14, 2023, as fighting between Israel and the Hamas movement continues for the eighth consecutive day and Israel has cut off water, fuel and food supplies from the enclave. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October 8. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP Photo)

An Israeli jail authority officer escorts a prison van containing Palestinian prisoners as it enters Hasharon jail on October 16, 2011 in Tel Mond, Israel. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is to be freed from 5 years of captivity in Gaza in an exchange deal which will see the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in an initial deal with another 550 to freed after the return of Shalit. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

A fire-eater of the “Diables de Terrassa” performs during Sitges' little “Festa Major”, “Santa Tecla” in Sitges, Spain on September 19, 2016. This celebration brings together some of Catalonia’s most emblematic festive traditions. The central axis of the celebrations is the traditional parade, made up of “big-head” carnival figures and characters who dance to music played on different traditional instruments. One of the most popular events is the Correfoc or fire-running, which is also the closing event of the fiesta. The people run and jump over characters dressed up as devils and dragons, carrying fire. (Photo by Matthias Oesterle/ZUMA Press/Splash News)