A woman applies make-up on a young woman's lips as they both wear bearskin before the start of the second edition of the International Festival of Winter Traditions “Cetatea lui Bucur” in Bucharest, Romania, on December 16, 2023. (Photo by Daniel Mihailescu/AFP Photo)

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)

Second placed Kalex Moto2 Tito Rabat (rear R) of Spain and third placed Kalex Moto2 Alex Rins of Spain spray with champagne during the award ceremony for the Czech Grand Prix in Brno, Czech Republic, August 16, 2015. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

A couple is walking hand-held up Kronsberg, just outside Hanover, Germany on April 7, 2020, when the moon rises on the horizon as the so-called supermoon. The moon reaches its perigee, i.e. the point closest to the Earth's orbit, on the night of 7-8 April as a full moon and therefore appears particularly large to the human observer. (Photo by Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via ZUMA Press)

A woman already appears to be regretting her choice of heels for the day out during the Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse on April 8, 2017 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photos)

In this November 17, 2014 photo, Pancho, a domesticated huitia, confronts a camera, in Bainoa, Cuba. With their rope-like, dark tails, long front teeth, and whiskers that appear to be vibrating, huitias look like giant rats. They measure nearly a foot long (about 30 centimeters), with the largest ones weighing in bigger than a small dog. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Hotel guides jump as they pose for pictures outside the Great Hall of the People during the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, March 5, 2016. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Athletes from Australia's Olympic team going to the 2016 Olympics in Rio present their uniforms alongside Brazilian Samba dancer Sashya Jay at an official unveiling ceremony at Sydney's Bondi Beach, March 30, 2016. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)