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 guide dangles a live chicken in front of a crocodile in the village of Bazoule, Burkina Faso, December 4, 2015. The villagers believe the crocodiles that live there are sacred. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

A woman walks past a mural painting on a street in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

Nuns react at the arrival of Pope Francis at the St. Mary's school to attend a meeting of clergy and religious in Nairobi, Kenya, 26 November 2015. Pope Francis is on a six days visit that will take him to Kenya, Uganda and the Repulic of Central Africa from 25 to 30 November. (Photo by Daniel Dal Zennaro/EPA)

Nina Bahinskaya, 73, poses for a photo holding an old Belarusian national flag at an entrance of her apartment building in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, September 10, 2020. The 73-year-old former geologist has become one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus protests, fearlessly waving a huge opposition's red-and-white flag in front of riot police. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

The Oshkosh M-ATV – MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle developed by the Oshkosh Corporation of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It is designed to provide the same levels of protection as the larger and heavier previous MRAPs but with improved mobility and it is intended to replace M1114 HMMWVs. (wikipedia) (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Horse riding along the beach at Frinton-on-Sea in Essex, UK on Sunday, November 30, 2025 as the sun was setting, Becky James riding Ayla. Photo by Kevin Jay/Picture Exclusive)

Protesters wear gas masks in the front of the Romanian Environment Ministry in Bucharest March 4, 2019, to demand better air. Dozens of people holding placards reading “Our children don't breath air anymore” gather in the front of the Environment Ministry to ask for better breathable air in Bucharest. (Photo by Daniel Mihailescu/AFP Photo)