A member of the Fientan group, a contemporary dance company of young deaf and mute people from Burkina Faso, performs during the Market for Performing Arts in Abidjan (MASA), at the Culture Palace in Abidjan, Ivory Coast on April 17, 2024. (Photo by Luc Gnago/Reuters)

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 Chinese man wears a mask to protect against pollution as he waits at a red light while commuting to work in heavy smog on December 8, 2015 in Beijing, China. The Beijing government issued a 'red alert' for the first time since new standards were introduced earlier this year as the city and many parts of northern China were shrouded in heavy pollution. Levels of PM 2.5, considered the most hazardous, crossed 400 units in Beijing, lower than last week, but still nearly 20 times the acceptable standard set by the World Health Organization. The governments of more than 190 countries are meeting in Paris to set targets on reducing carbon emissions in an attempt to forge a new global agreement on climate change. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A topless woman walks through Bryant Park following the protest march called the GoTopless Day Parade Sunday, August 23, 2015, in New York. The parade took to the streets to counter critics who are complaining about topless tip-seekers in Times Square. Appearing bare-breasted is legal in New York. But Mayor Bill de Blasio and police Commissioner Bill Bratton say the body-painted women in the square who take photos with tourists are a nuisance. (Photo by Kevin Hagen/AP Photo)

A Chicago Police Officer runs toward gunfire as looters break into downtown stores in the early hours of the morning on August 10, 2020. (Photo by RMV/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An injured demonstrator hugs another as riot police officers prevent them from attending a Pride parade, which was banned by local authorities, in central in Ankara, Turkey on June 29, 2021. (Photo by Cagla Gurdogan/Reuters)

Colombia midfielder Natalia Gaitan (3) goes up for a header against Mexico midfielder Nayeli Rangel (7) in Moncton, June 9, 2015. (Photo by Matt Kryger/USA TODAY Sports)

The sun rises beside St Mary's Lighthouse in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, as the unseasonably cool weather continues on Thursday, April 28, 2016. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)