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 dog wearing face mask is seen on a street as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Shanghai, China on March 2, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

English singer-songwriter Dua Lipa (R) holds onto a friend in a pool in the last decade of August 2022. (Photo by dualipa/Instagram)

Emily Ratajkowski on March 10, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

Cody Vancina of Skydive Snohomish dives at the finish line after parachuting down to the track in a t-rex outfit with two colleagues during the “T-Rex World Championship Races” at Emerald Downs, Sunday, June 29, 2025, in Auburn, Wash. (Photo by Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo)

“Teenager Teenager”, an installation by the collaborative Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, at the exhibition “Crazy. Madness in contemporary art” in Rome on February 18, 2022. (Photo by Gloria Imbrogno/LiveMedia/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A model (R) wearing a dress adorned with chocolate stands backstage prior to a fashion show during the annual “Salon du Chocolat” expo in Seoul, South Korea on January 10, 2020. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

A woman selling souvenirs walks through Kuta beach in Bali June 5, 2008. Indonesia is expected to report tourist arrivals in December this week. (Photo by Murdani Usman/Reuters)