A woman looks at model of the Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, during the 28th International Exhibition – Forum of Architecture and Design “Arch Moscow” in Moscow, Russia, 24 May 2023. Arch Moscow is one of the oldest architectural and construction exhibitions in Moscow. The 28th International Exhibition – Forum of Architecture and Design takes place from 24 May to 27 May 2023. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A general view of a beauty salon on July 8, 2023 in Kabul, Afghanistan. This week, a Taliban spokesman said the group, which regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, was ordering the closure of beauty salons because they offered services forbidden by Islam. (Photo by Nava Jamshidi/Getty Images)

“Seagulls by Snuff Puppets causing mischief” stand alongside members of “Smashed: The Nightcap cabaret show” during the opening day press call for Sydney Festival 2024 on January 05, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage)

An aerial view taken with a drone shows people walking past dried lava (L) from a previous volcanic eruption as they make their way to a location closer to watch the fresh volcano eruption near Grindavik, Reykjanes, Iceland, 17 July 2025. According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, a magma flow has begun at the Sundhnuk crater range on 16 July. (Photo by Jakob Vegerfors/EPA)

A Vietnamese woman, wearing the traditional “ao dai” long dress, poses for photos along peach blossom flowers ahead of the Vietnamese “Tet” (Lunar New Year festival), in a field in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 2, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

Li Guoqiang talks on his phone outside his house at Guangfuli neighbourhood, in Shanghai, China, April 1, 2016. Li, 38, is a deliveryman who rents a place at Guangfuli. In a corner of Shanghai, surrounded by a cement wall, lies one of the world's most valuable fields of debris and garbage. On paper, the Guangfuli neighbourhood is a real estate investor's dream: a plot in the middle of one of the world's most expensive and fast-rising property markets. But the reality is more like a developer's nightmare, thanks to hundreds of people living there who have refused to budge from their ramshackle homes for nearly 16 years as the local authority sought to clear the land for new construction. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A Brazilian drug gang member nicknamed Pilintra, 26, poses with a gun atop a hill overlooking a slum in Salvador, Bahia State, April 11, 2013. One of Brazil's main tourist destinations and a 2014 World Cup host city, Salvador suffers from an unprecedented wave of violence with an increase of over 250% in the murder rate, according to the Brazilian Center for Latin American Studies (CEBELA). (Photo by Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

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)