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)

Pope Francis greets the crowd from his popemobile in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Pope Francis touched down in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, starting his first foreign trip as pontiff and a weeklong series of events expected to attract more than a million people to a gathering of young faithful in Brazil, home to the world's largest Roman Catholic population. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

This green-skinned trio were happy to pose for the camera – with one little frog smiling happily for its close up. The three Reinwardt's Flying Frog, commonly known as the black webbed tree frog or the green flying frog, were spotted playing in a tree by photographer Hendy Mp. The 25-year-old who saw the frogs near his home in Sambas, Kalimantan Barat, in Indonesia, said they reminded him of three brothers playing together. (Photo by Hendy Mp/SOLENT News)

Indigenous woven backpacks called guayare are seen in front of a house in Paraitepui village, before a walking excursion to Mount Roraima, near Venezuela's border with Brazil January 13, 2015. A mysterious table-topped mountain on the Venezuela-Brazil border that perplexed 19th century explorers and inspired “The Lost World” novel is attracting ever more modern-day adventurers. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

This picture taken on February 1, 2015 shows participants competing in a tofu (beancurd) wrestling competition in Fogang county, south China's Guangdong province. Participants, mostly women, fight it out in an inflatable pool which is filled with nearly two tons of fresh milk and tofu, in a promotion to attract tourists for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. The upcoming Chinese lunar new year of the sheep, which will fall on February 19 this year, marks the biggest festival of the year in China as hundreds of millions of people journey across the country to celebrate the season with their families. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Couples (L-R) Chaiyut Phuangphoeksuk and Prontathourn Pronnapatthun, and Nichapatr Koomsombut and Pirat Rungthongoran run from sheep during their wedding ceremony at a resort in Ratchaburi province February 13, 2015. Three Thai couples took part in the wedding ceremony arranged by a resort themed around fun activities ahead of Valentine's Day. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Pedestrians and workers pass an upside down car art installation in a car park on the South Bank in London, February 19, 2015. British artist Alex Chinneck's illusory piece, entitled “Pick yourself up and pull yourself together”, and on display in the working car park for a week, sees a Vauxhall car suspended upside down, appearing to be gripping onto a peeled back length of tarmac. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A resident types a text message on her mobile phone, as she sits on a bench made from a tree, which is a creation by Brazilian artist Hugo Franca at Largo da Batata square in Sao Paulo March 17, 2015. Franca, a designer from Sao Paulo is working with the city to make use of fallen trees to turn them into sculpture furniture to line the city's parks, streets and plazas. Brazil's largest city was slammed by several strong storms this rainy season that brought with them heavy rain, lightning and winds as high as 90 kilometres (55 miles) per hour. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)