A bodyboarder rides a wave during a big- wave surfing session at Praia do Norte in Nazare on November 19, 2016. (Photo by Patricia de Melo Moreira/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)

Senior Buddhist monk Lobsang Tayang sits outside the Amarbayasgalant Monastery in the Baruunburen district, Selenge province, Mongolia, April 26, 2018. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Romanian female soldiers stand prior to the military parade on Romania's National Day in Bucharest, on December 1, 2022. (Photo by Daniel Mihailescu/AFP Photo)

A group of colorful row houses are reflected on to the top of a black car parked on 3600 block of N street in the Georgetown section of Washington DC, February 16, 2017. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

Male and female bodybuilders prepare backstage to compete during the Asia Pacific Bodybuilding Championships 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand, 17 August 2019. Hundreds of bodybuilders from Asia Pacific countries are set to flex their muscles to compete in the contest. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA/EFE)

In this photo provided by World Press Photo, the 1st Prize Daily Life Single of the 2011 World Press Photo Contest by Omar Feisal, Somalia, Reuters, shows a man carrying a shark through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, September 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Omar Feisal/Reuters)

Syrian fighters from the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF) fire a missile against regime positions on May 13, 2019 in the rebel-held northern part of Syria's Hama province. Clashes on the edge of a jihadist bastion in northwestern Syria have killed at least 42 fighters in 24 hours, a monitor said today, after regime bombardment on the region devastated health services. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP Photo)