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)

Relatives of Palestinians from Abu Taima family, who were killed in an Israeli strike, grieve during their funeral, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

(L-R) Models Jasmine Tookes, Paloma Elsesser, Barbara Palvin and Ashley Graham prepare backstage at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2024 on October 15, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)

From the top of a building, Kanon Kennedy, of Washington, looks down at the Black Lives Matter mural as demolition begins, Monday, March 10, 2025, in Washington. (Photo by acquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

The Dora the Explorer balloon moves through Times Square during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Thursday, November 23, 2006 in New York. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Paramedics wearing protective suits amid fears of coronavirus outbreak check on a man who collapsed outside a clinic in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, March 26, 2020. It's not immediately clear what caused the man to collapse. The U.S. Embassy in Indonesia has ordered the departure of employees' family members under the age of 21 from its missions in the country where new COVID-19 patients have surged in the past week with high fatality. (Photo by Muchlis Akbar/AP Photo)

A Filipino activist builds an effigy depicting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ahead of Marcos' first State of the Nation Address, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on July 24, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

United States' Abby Dahlkemper, left, and Netherlands' Lieke Martens fall while fighting for the ball during a women's quarterfinal soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 30, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)