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)

“The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States of America to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States. It is a metallic Zero Halliburton briefcase carried in a black leather “jacket”. The package weighs around 45 pounds (20 kilograms). A small antenna protrudes from the bag near the handle”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. Military officer carries the “football”, which carries nuclear launch codes, on South Lawn after returning with U.S. President George W. Bush to the White House January 7, 2002 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Riot police officers in position to crack down on demonstrators during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on April 20, 2017. Venezuelan riot police fired tear gas Thursday at groups of protesters seeking to oust President Nicolas Maduro, who have vowed new mass marches after a day of deadly unrest. Police in western Caracas broke up scores of opposition protesters trying to join a larger march, though there was no immediate repeat of Wednesday's violent clashes, which left three people dead. (Photo by Juan Barreto/AFP Photo)

Haitian policemen arrest a demonstrator with machetes at the end of a march, in Port-au-Prince, on November 26, 2015. Supporters of Fanmi Lavalas and Petit Dessalines political parties marched to protest against the results given by the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), against the Haitian President Michel Martelly, and against the candidate of the ruling party Jovenel Moise. Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) confirmed this week that Haiti's presidential election will go to a runoff on December 27, between ruling party candidate Jovenel Moise and Jude Celestin, close to former president Rene Preval. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

A pro-democracy demonstrator fights with a Soviet soldier on top of a tank parked in front of the Russian Federation building on August 19, 1991, after a coup toppled Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The same day, thousands in Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities answered Russian Republic President Boris Yeltsin's call to raise barricades against tanks and troops. (Dima Tanin/AFP/Getty Images)

A demonstrator catches fire during clashes with riot police within a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on May 3, 2017. Venezuela's angry opposition rallied Wednesday vowing huge street protests against President Nicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the constitution and accusing him of dodging elections to cling to power despite deadly unrest. (Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP Photo)

Opposition supporters march in the streets during a demonstration against the Ivorian President running for a third term in the next presidential elections, in Bonoua, Ivory Coast, 21 August 2020. The Ivorian opposition opposes a third term for incumbent president Ouattara who has been in power for ten years. The presidential elections will be held in October 2020. (Photo by Legnan Koula/EPA/EFE)

A soldier supporting anti-government opposition groups carries a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on a street in the Fagah area of Mogadishu, Somalia Sunday, April 25, 2021. Gunfire was exchanged Sunday between government forces loyal to President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who signed into law on April 14 a two year extension of his mandate and that of his government, and other sections of the military opposed to the move and sympathetic to former presidents Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. (Photo by Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP Photo)