A fan cheers during the African Cup of Nations Group F soccer match between DR Congo and Zambia in San Pedro, Ivory Coast, Wednesday, January 17, 2024. (Photo by Themba Hadebe/AP Photo)

Women in traditional costumes wait for a statue of the El Carmen Virgin to be carried into the sea during a procession in Malaga July 16, 2015. Many seaside towns celebrate the annual feast of the El Carmen Virgin, who is worshipped as the patron saint of sailors. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

People walk with umbrella during snowfall in Istanbul, Turkiye on November 19, 2023. (Photo by Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Women take a selfie with a giant dragon lantern decorated near the frozen Houhai Lake in Beijing, Thursday, February 8, 2024. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Ellie Alderson partner of Ollie Watkins (ENG) and Lewis Capaldi the wife of Dean Henderson (ENG) Aine May Kennedy partner of Conor Gallagher (ENG) Megan Davison wife of Jordan Pickford (ENG) at Arena Aufschalke, Gelsenkirchen, Germany on June 16, 2024. (Photo by Moritz Muller/Alamy Live News)

A woman carries portraits of Red Army soldiers during the celebrations of Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Almaty, Kazakhstan on May 9, 2023. (Photo by Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/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)