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)

Members of the O’Neill and Gallagher families from Sydney, Australia take to the water at the 40 Foot for a Christmas Day Swim in Ireland on December 25, 2022. (Photo by Alan Betson/The Irish Times)

A relative mourns Palestinian Ahmad Saif, 23, who died as a result of injuries sustained on March 1, during clashes with Israeli soldiers following a demonstration, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Burqa, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (Photo by Majdi Mohammed/AP Photo)

Jil Belen Teichmann of Switzerland in action against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in her third round match on Day 6 at Roland Garros on May 27, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

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)

An Afghan hawker selling balloons walks along a path in a ground in Chaman-e-Hozori area in Kabul on December 10, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP Photo)

The first legal wedding ceremony in history was performed in a hot tub when Leslie Davis, 23, and Richard Bustardo, 29, got married during the Backyard Living Show in Los Angeles, March 26, 1975. The ceremony was held in a five-foot hot tub, with the bride wearing a bikini and the groom attired in swimming trunks and top hat. In background is best man Arnold Holland and bridesmaid Bonnie Heckenbach, who joined the couple in the same hot tub. Officiating is Betty Jane Shaw, left. (Photo by Harold Filan/AP Photo)

A herd of wildebeest cross the skyline against the fading light in Masai Mara, Kenya, 25 August 2017. Stunning sunset photos silhouette Africa’s wildlife against streaks of orange and red sky. In August, German photographer Ingo Gerlach was on safari in the Masai Mara when he convinced his safari guide to stop and take in the sunset. The wildlife photographer was rewarded with his patience by an eye-catching sunset, which cast Africa’s wildlife into dark shadows against the vibrant skies. (Photo by Ingo Gerlach/Barcroft Images)