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)

Lesser Horned Owl (Bubo magellanicus) is seen at the meadows of Patagonian valley in Santa Cruz, Argentina on December 21, 2024. Lesser Horned Owl is a large owl of the genus Bubo found in southern South America, with its distinctive “horns”, black-rimmed face and heavily striped abdomen. (Photo by Mehmet Emin Yogurtcuoglu/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Some bats in the forested area of Guapiles, Costa Rica, 21 April 2020. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA/EFE)

Cooler temperatures begin this week as a polar vortex brings much colder conditions with the chance of snow for Snowdonia, Ogwen Valley, North Wales on 22nd October 2018. The Ogwen Valley and Tryfan Mountain looking splendid in the Autumn sunrise. (Photo by DGDImages/Alamy Live News)

East Berliners crossing into the West Berlin on November 11, 1989 at the Potsdamer Platz, Germany. (Photo by Kai Wiedenhoefer)

Passengers take photos at a wildfire while traveling on a train in Zamora, Spain, Monday, July 18, 2022. When Francisco Seoane's train unexpectedly stopped in Spanish countryside that was being engulfed by a wildfire, he and other passengers got a fright when they looked out at flames encroaching on both sides of the track. The Spaniard told The Associated Press it was scary to see how quickly the fire spread. Video of the unscheduled – and unnerving – stop shows about a dozen passengers in Seoane's railcar appearing alarmed as they look out of the windows Monday. (Photo by Francisco Seoane Perez/AP Photo)

A boy swims in Chao Phraya River as he helps to place a Krathong, or a “floating basket”, in the water amid a yearly festival during which rafts of neatly folded banana leaves, decorated with flowers, candles and incense, are offered to thank the water goddess for good luck and for using her water to grow crops and support all life, in Bangkok, Thailand on November 8, 2022. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Kyuta Kumagai, 10, wrestles with a boy the same age as him, during a training session at Buddy acL Ariake's wrestling club in Tokyo, Japan, August 22, 2020. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)