A man smashes an apple with a sword placed on the head of a man wearing a knave costume during the Easter knight event on April 21, 2014 in Berlin. The easter knight event delivers an insight into medieval lifestyle. (Photo by Rainer Jensen/AFP Photo/DPA)

A snowman is seen by the side of a road as snow falls on the hills around the Bay Area while a massive winter storm passes along the west coast, delivering some snow, freezing rains, and gusty winds around, near San Jose, California, U.S., February 23, 2023. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

People wearing mushroom hats stand in front of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 14, 2021. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Stanford golfer Rose Shang smiles towards her teammates after winning the NCAA college women's golf championship at Grayhawk Golf Club, Monday, May 22, 2023, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Photo by Matt York/AP Photo)

An Israeli policewoman calls out as behind her Israeli right-wing activists scuffle with a Palestinian man at the archaeological and religious site of the Tomb of Samuel at the Nabi Samuel village between Ramallah and Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on September 2, 2022. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

Customers are seen in front of a shop that reopened in central Copenhagen, Denmark, 01 March 2021. Shops reopened after several months of closure due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Philip Davali/EPA/EFE)

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)

A wide-angle view shows the ascent of the shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In the seconds after ignition, the rocket engines' hot blast began the process of destruction. (Photo by NASA)