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)

People jump over a campfire during a celebration on the traditional Ivana Kupala (Ivan the Bather) holiday, the ancient tradition, originating from pagan times, is usually marked with grand overnight festivities during which people sing and dance around campfires, believing it will purge them of their sins and make them healthier, in Kiev, Ukraine, July 6, 2016. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

In this Tuesday, May 3, 2016 photo, Madeley Vasquez, 16, breast feeds her one-year-old son Joangel as she waits in line outside a supermarket to buy food in Caracas, Venezuela. Vasquez once ran down the block to avoid getting caught up in a knife fight that broke out when a woman was accused of cutting the line. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

Indian School children's in a traditational attire of a characters of Indian epic Ramayan, on the eve of children's day celebration at cubbon park, in Bangalore, India, 13 November 2016. Children's day (also known as Bal Divas), in India is celebrated every year on 14th of November to increase the awareness of people towards the rights, care, and education of children. Many schools hold activities and allow students to have fun and attend their classes in coloured dresses. (Photo by Jagadeesh N.V./EPA)

Caoimhe Cooburn-Gray poses for a picture on St. Patrick's day in Dublin, Ireland March 17, 2016. Saint Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilithe, and the wearing of shamrocks, as well as green or orange attire. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Revelers celebrate during fireworks marking the start of the New Year on Copacabana beach on January 1, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazilian revelers traditionally dress in white to honor the New Year's holiday along with the Brazilian Goddess of the Sea- Iemanja. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Two young women, having enjoyed a drink at a party, dance together in Tehran, Iran. Although unrelated men and women are forbidden to socialise together many people ignore these strictures in the privacy of their own homes. (Photo by Hossein Fatemi/Reuters/Panos Pictures/Courtesy of World Press Photo Foundation)

Employees prepare spacesuits at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on August 19, 2015. Members of the main crew of the 45/46 expedition to the International Space Station ISS, Kazakhstan's cosmonaut Aydyn Aimbetov, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Denmark's astronaut Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency, are scheduled to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 2, 2015. (Photo by AFP Photo)