Dawlish Carnival 50th anniversary pram race featuring the famous Dawlish Black Swan in England on August 15, 2023. (Photo by nidpor/StockimoNews/Alamy Live News)

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)

Kenichi Ito runs on his arms and legs on a race course on his way to setting the Guinness World Record fastest time for the 100-meter dash on all fours at Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium in Tokyo Thursday, November 14, 2013. The 30-year-old Japanese finished in 16.87 seconds Thursday, shaving more than half a second off his 2012 run of 17.47. (Photo by Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo)

Aymara indigenous people celebrate the “Roscasiri”, the change of command of local authorities, in Pomata District, one of seven districts of the Chucuito Province in the Puno Region, southern Peru, on January 1, 2022. This ancient Aymara event, in which people adorn themselves with breads and fruits that represent abundance for the new year, celebrates the change of command of local authorities. (Photo by Carlos Mamani/AFP Photo)

Alluvial Fan, China. A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s XinJiang Province. Image taken by the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite on May 2nd, 2002. (Photo by NASA/GSFC/USGS EROS Data Center)

A paramedic enters an ambulance vehicle as she responds to a call received by Ambulance Station No 3 of Rostov-on-Don's Emergency Care Hospital on New Year's Day in Rostov-On-Don, Russia on January 1, 2022. (Photo by Erik Romanenko/TASS)

A couple takes selfie pictures amid heart shaped decorations setted for Valentine's day, in Bangkok, Thailand on February 14, 2021. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Car headlights illuminate a woman walking through city streets as snow accumulates on December 16, 2020 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Winter Storm Gail is expected to bring more than a foot of snow in parts of the Northeast. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)