A girl yawns as she and others wait for the start of their first day in school, an occasion known as the Day of Knowledge, in the small town Ignalina, some 110km (68 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, September 2, 2019. (Photo by Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo)

A man holds an idol of Hindu God Ganesha before immersing it in the Bay of Bengal during Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Chennai, India, Sunday, September 20, 2015. The festival marks the birth of Ganesha who is widely worshiped by Hindus as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. (Photo by Arun Sankar K./AP Photo)

Vinaya Vijay, right, and Vijay Parthasarathy wade through water at Badwater Basin, Thursday, February 22, 2024, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. The basin, normally a salt flat, has filled from rain over the past few months. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

A pedestrian walks with an umbrella along a street during rainfall in Bengaluru on June 2, 2024. (Photo by Idrees Mohammed/AFP Photo)

The second annual Salon du Chocolat exhibition and fashion show at LeGourmet in Galeries Lafayette, Dubai Mall on May 18, 2023. Dress “Madonna” created by Chef Christiane S. Trilck designed by Julian Knips. (Photo by Antonie Robertson/The National)

In a January 19, 2014 photo Phillip Seymour Hoffman poses for a portrait at The Collective and Gibson Lounge Powered by CEG, during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Hoffman, who won the Oscar for best actor in 2006 for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in “Capote” was found dead Sunday in his apartment in New York with what law enforcement officials said was a syringe in his arm. He was 46. (Photo by Victoria Will/AP Photo/Invision)

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)

Fireworks explode over Elizabeth Tower housing the Big Ben clock in London. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)