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)

Festival crowd enjoying the weather on Day 1 of Reading Festival on August 25, 2017 in Reading, England. (Photo by Dean Fardell/Barcroft Images)

Bella Hadid attends the fittings for the Victoria Secret Fashion Show 2017 on August 28, 2017 in New York City, USA. (Photo by MediaPunch/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Eva Longoria Farmer Visits "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" at Rockefeller Center on November 24, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon")

Model Sara Sampaio shows some side boob as she arrives at Balmain Fashion Show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France on September 28, 2017. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

A Philippine Airlines A300 Airbus plane lies near the service road of a highway south of Manila after it overshot the runway, September 19, 1987 in Manila upon landing from Singapore. Nobody was injured among 135 passengers and crewmen on board. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

A woman carries her child in a basket as she walks on a road in Allahabad, India, August 11, 2016. (Photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)

The Doppler on Wheels (DOW) vehicle scans a supercell thunderstorm during a tornado research mission, May 8, 2017 in Elbert County near Agate, Colorado. Doppler on Wheels (DOW) is a mobile doppler radar mounted on a truck that brings instruments directly into storms, allowing scientists to scan storms and tornadoes and make 3-D maps of wind and debris. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)