A tourist visits an ocean park during the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, 2024 in Handan, Hebei Province of China. May 22 marks the 24th International Day for Biological Diversity. (Photo by Hao Qunying/VCG via Getty Images)

LADANIVA, representing Armenia, performs “Jako” during the Grand Final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, in Malmo, Sweden, on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

Mike De Paola, founding director of TW Fine Art, is seen near an art installation at “Feltz Bagels”, a bagel bakery made entirely from felt, at TW Fine Art in Montauk, New York, U.S. August 11, 2023. (Photo by Roselle Chen/Reuters)

Performers dressed as zombies arrive to the pier of the Excelsior Hotel on September 6, 2021 during the 78th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (Photo by Yara Nardi/Reuters)

A man crosses Canal Street in the wind and rain from Hurricane Isaac August 29, 2012. (Photo by David J. Phillip/Associated Press)

This picture taken on June 1, 2019 shows Alex Gao trying to balance a book on his head during an etiquette and manners class in central Shanghai. Against a soundtrack of classical music, children learn social skills, dining manners and deportment in the class, which costs $390 for four hours of practical instruction per student. (Photo by Hector Retamal/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)

A 1934 Packard Chassis Coachbuilt Body is displayed during The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, in Carmel, California, U.S. August 19, 2016. The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California, considered the most prestigious event of its kind. It is the finale of Monterey Car Week held in August every year. (Photo by Michael Fiala/Reuters/Courtesy of The Revs Institute)