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 wide-angle view shows the ascent of the shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In the seconds after ignition, the rocket engines' hot blast began the process of destruction. (Photo by NASA)

A snowman is seen by the side of a road as snow falls on the hills around the Bay Area while a massive winter storm passes along the west coast, delivering some snow, freezing rains, and gusty winds around, near San Jose, California, U.S., February 23, 2023. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Stanford golfer Rose Shang smiles towards her teammates after winning the NCAA college women's golf championship at Grayhawk Golf Club, Monday, May 22, 2023, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Photo by Matt York/AP Photo)

An Israeli policewoman calls out as behind her Israeli right-wing activists scuffle with a Palestinian man at the archaeological and religious site of the Tomb of Samuel at the Nabi Samuel village between Ramallah and Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on September 2, 2022. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

A runner takes part in the International World's coldest marathon at minus 53 degrees (–63.4 Fahrenheit) near Oymyakon, the republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, Russian Far East, Saturday, January 22, 2022. Sixty five runners, including athletes from the United Arab Emirates, United States and Belarus, started the run at extremely low temperature in Oymyakon, Yakutia's Pole of Cold. The international team of men and women ran full distance and half-marathon. (Photo by Ivan Nikiforov/AP Photo)

Jodie Ounsley who plays Fury in the British TV show Gladiators reacts after finishing the Women's Open Category race at the World Coal Carrying Championships in Ossett, West Yorkshire, England, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Photo by Jon Super/AP Photo)