A man stands next to a horsecart laden with oil drums on a street in Lahore on September 27, 2020. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

The opening of sculptor Carole Feuerman solo outdoor public art show, Sea Idylls, on Park Avenue in NYC on April 27, 2023. The hyperrealistic sculptures in conjunction with Les Galeries Bartoux and Patrons of Park Avenue line the median. (Photo by Milo Hess/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A fuzzy caterpillar on a basil plant in west Bengal, India on December 25, 2023. The caterpillar’s defence system is its hair, which has microscopic barbs that break off easily in the skin of would-be predators. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

Star Wars actors on the Cantina set at Star Wars Celebration: The Ultimate Fan Experience held at the Anaheim Convention Center on Thursday, April 16, 2015, in Anaheim, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Photo)

Fat Jew makes his entrance at the first birthday party for White Girl Rosé hosted by Elite Daily at The Dream Downtown, Sunday, July 17, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/Invision for White Girl Rosé/AP Images)

A dog wearing a mask is seen on a street following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Shanghai, China on March 22, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

An Afghan woman collects cotton buds at governmental farms in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 20 October 2020. Afghanistan's agriculture and livestock department in Nangarhar province hire women and people in need of cash assistance to harvest cotton from their farms. (Photo by Ghulamullah Habibi/EPA/EFE)