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 refugee sits in front of a Greek riot police cordon during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni, March 1, 2016. (Photo by Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters)

Two female soldiers have their picture taken by an army colleague at Mangyongdae. (Photo by Gavin John/Mediadrumworld.com)

Muslim girls are seen after prayers, in Lagos, Nigeria, Friday, July 31, 2020. Small groups of pilgrims performed one of the final rites of the Islamic hajj on Friday as Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday amid a global pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of this year's pilgrimage and celebrations. The last days of hajj coincide with the four-day Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, in which Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor. (Photo by Sunday Alamba/AP Photo)

People dance during a heavy metal concert at Omni Space in Beijing, China, August 14, 2020. China boasts a small but buoyant heavy metal scene, where bands mix genre standards with Chinese elements. Black metal is a sub-genre that creates a dark, moody atmosphere layering heavily distorted guitars and high-pitched vocals. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

16-year-old panda, Ye Ye, rests in an enclosure at the Wolong Nature Reserve, a conservation center that trains pandas for release into the wild. This image was published in the August 2016 National Geographic magazine as part of the “Pandas Gone Wild” story. (Photo by Ami Vitale/National Geographic Creative)

A young Bengal tiger cub smuggled into the US and seized at the Mexico border is displayed for the media during Operation Jungle Book at the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Torrance, California on October 20, 2017. Operation Jungle Book, a law enforcement initiative led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that targeted wildlife smuggling, resulting in federal criminal charges against defendants who allegedly participated in the illegal importation and/ or transportation of numerous animal species – including a tiger, monitor lizards, cobras, Asian “lucky” fish, exotic songbirds and several coral species. (Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP Photo)

An Indian artists uses sparkles to decorate statues of the Hindu god Lord Ganesh ahead of the forthcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival at a workshop in Hyderabad on August 29, 2016. The statues are being prepared for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival a popular eleven-day long Hindu religious festival in India which will be celebrated from September 5 to 15. (Photo by Noah Seelam/AFP Photo)