A man crosses from a pirogue to another pirogue during the annual boat regatta in Yauri, Kebbi State, on February 15, 2025. The regatta festival started about 200 years ago as a display of naval strength of the Gungu people, where the Gungu warriors annually attacked dangerous hippopotamus that were destroying farmlands. Warriors would board various sizes of canoes with different types of weapons to attack the animal on the River Niger. This required expertise in canoe paddling and naval warfare. It also served as training exercise for upcoming Gungu warriors. (Photo by Toyin Adedokun/AFP Photo)

Two miniature pigs, Brad Pigg and Gordon Hamsey, train for racing season at Monk Park Farm near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, UK on March 18, 2025. (Photo by James Glossop/Times Media Ltd)

A man reacts as he holds the equipment used by Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, who was a contractor for Reuters, at the site where he was killed along with other journalists and people in Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still image taken from a video shot by Reuters contractor Hatem Khaled, who was wounded shortly afterwards in another strike while he was filming the site on August 25, 2025. (Photo by Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

LADANIVA, representing Armenia, performs “Jako” during the Grand Final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, in Malmo, Sweden, on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

A festival-goer sings at Rock in Rio music festival while Brazilian rappers Veigh and Kayblack perform in Rio de Janeiro, Friday, September 13, 2024. (Photo by Hannah-Kathryn Valles/AP Photo)

Ocean Rebellion demonstrators perform on the Albert Embankment, on the final day of the MEPC 82 meetings in London, UK on October 2, 2024. (Photo by Victoria Jones/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Catholic devotee kisses the carriage during the annual religious procession of the Black Nazarene in Manila on January 9, 2025. Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims swarmed the streets of Manila in search of a miracle on January 9, straining to reach a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in an annual display of religious fervour. (Photo by Jam Sta Rosa/AFP Photo)

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)