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)

“San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego (as given on its website), and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans. It is traditionally a four-day event (Thursday through Sunday — though a three-hour preview night on Wednesday is open to professionals, exhibitors, and some guests pre-registered for all four days) held during the summer in San Diego, California, United States, at the San Diego Convention Center. Comic-Con is both the name of the annual event and the common name of the organization”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Rannie Rodil and Laya Bella attend Day 1 at Comic-Con 2011 on July 21, 2011 in San Diego, California. (Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images)

Participants re-enact the “Battle of Five Armies” from J.R.R. Tolkien's novel “The Hobbit” in a forest near the town of Doksy, Czech Republic June 6, 2015. According to event organizers, hundreds of enthusiasts dressed as characters such as elves, dwarves, goblins and orcs from the book “The Hobbit” re-enacted the clash. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

A staff member feeds a rabbit at the Bunny Style Hotel in Hong Kong, Wednesday, January 18, 2023. With the lifting of COVID restrictions, Hong Kongers are traveling again and some of those who keep rabbits at pets are booking them into a rabbit resort where they are fed, exercised and pampered with spa treatments. The Lunar New Year of the Rabbit is shining a particular spotlight on the popularity of the animals in the crowded city of tiny apartments. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/AP Photo)

Invasion (laser girls) 2017. “I’m always thinking about my art practice, so any experience I have may spike a visual when I have an idea in mind. An example is that, when I was thinking about the Invasion series, I was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds (1963). I love Hitchcock’s other movies and have been contemplating a series based on Rear Window (1954). I also find inspiration outside the cinema in music clips and magazines”. (Photo by Michael Cook/Perimeter Books)

A new book of photos by legendary photographer Weegee shows what industrialized, pre-gentrified New York looked like in the mid-20th century, before the city was crammed with towers and billboards. Here: this combination shows the 1945 photo “Derelict sleeping on the sidewalk outside police headquarters” by Weegee, provided by the International Center of Photography in New York, and a woman walking on the same spot on Wednesday, March 18, 2015. (Photo by AP Photo/Copyright Weegee/The International Center of Photography, Mark Lennihan)

Devotees take a holy bath during the Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu January 20, 2015. During the month-long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddesses and the miraculous feats performed by them. The devotees also go on pilgrimages to various temples, perform religious rituals, take a holy bath in the rivers and fast for a month, especially among women who believe fasting helps in their family's well-being or in getting them a good husband. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A devotee takes a holy bath in River Saali in Sankhu on the first day of Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu January 5, 2015. During the month long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddess and the miraculous feats performed by them. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)