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 boy walks with toy guns as people ride an APC during a military show at the Finnish Gulf coast in St.Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, September 5, 2015. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Model Georgia Salpa attends the UK Premiere of “A Good Day To Die Hard” at Empire Leicester Square on February 7, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by UK Press)

A Snowboarder participates in a waterslide contest, which consists of gliding over a water pool embedded in snow, during the closing event of the ski resort of Nendaz, southwestern Switzerland, Monday, April 21, 2014. (Photo by Maxime Schmid/AP Photo/Keystone)

This photograph released by Indian Space Research Organization shows its polar satellite launch vehicle lifting off from a launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, Wednesday, February 15, 2017. India's space agency said it successfully launched more than 100 foreign nano satellites into orbit Wednesday aboard a single rocket.(Photo by Indian Space Research Organization via AP Photo)

A student shouts slogans against Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro during a protest on the main highway in Caracas on March 30, 2017. Venezuela' s Supreme Court took over legislative powers Wednesday from the opposition- majority National Assembly, whose speaker accused leftist President Nicolas Maduro of staging a “coup”. (Photo by Juan Barreto/AFP Photo)

Kritchaya “Lolita” Boonhor (R) curls her eyelashes in ladyboy Candy's (L) room while she chats her about her boyfriend, in Bangkok, Thailand, 27 November 2017. Most things in life are a question of negotiation. Lolita is a woman, that was not to be negotiated. What needed to be negotiated was how she was perceived by those around her. And that negotiation was one that took time and effort. (Photo by Lola Levan/EPA/EFE)

Artist Leiomy performs at the Sissy Ball in Sydney, Australia on February 24, 2018. The Sissy Ball is a celebration of voguing – a style of modern dance, a form of self-expression, and a powerful movement that has become a representation for the sociopolitical struggles of the LGBTQI+ community. (Photo by Ken Leanfore/Red Bull Music)