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)

Ty, a 15-year-old boy, poses for a picture while collecting usable items at a landfill dumpsite outside Siem Reap March 19, 2015. Ty, who finished six-grade primary school, said he makes 5 USD per month working at the dumpsite. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Workers carry a metal sheet at a dockyard in Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 5, 2018. (Photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

Tourists wear protective masks in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, 15 March 2020. Indonesia has around 80 active cases of Covid-19. More than 70,000 people worldwide have recovered from coronavirus, nearly half of the total infections recorded since the outbreak began. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA/EFE)

A vendor pushes an improvised cart with a woman and merchandise along a rarely used rail track in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, June 25, 2020. Daily life in the capital slowly returns to normal as the Thai government eases many restrictions imposed weeks ago to combat the spread of COVID-19. Though emergency regulations require the use of face masks in public, some residents have become apathetic as Thailand has record zero local transmission for over three weeks. (Photo by Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP Photo)

Behishta,11, listens during 4th grade class at the Zarghoona high school on July 25 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Zarghoona girls high school is the largest in Kabul with 8,500 female students attending classes. The school opened after a nearly two-month break due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Experts of the Anti-Mine Center of the Russian Defense Ministry clear mines at a motorway linking the cities of Stepanakert and Goris in Nagorno-Karabakh on November 23, 2020. (Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS)

Ariana Lamcellari, 4, holds a sign at a protest against violence, following the charge of a British police officer in the London kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard, in Dublin, Ireland on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)