Wai Ching Jason Poon of Hong Kong competes in the Men's 1m Springboard preliminary round during Day One of the 14th FINA World Championships at the Oriental Sports Center on July 16, 2011 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

Linda Cerruti of Italy competes in the Synchronized Swimming Solo Tech preliminary round during Day Two of the 14th FINA World Championships at the Oriental Sports Center on July 17, 2011 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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)

Model Heidi Klum and TV personality Nick Cannon speak onstage during Nickelodeon's 24th Annual Kids' Choice Awards at Galen Center on April 2, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

A New York window cleaner strapped to the side of The RCA Building in the Rockefeller Center, with St Patrick's Cathedral below him to the left. (Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images). 2nd May 1961

Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center July 21, 2011 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The landing brings to a close the 30-year era of the space shuttle program that began in 1981, and has included 135 missions. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

Singer Selena Gomez performs at the PNC Bank Arts Center on August 20, 2011 in Holmdel, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)