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 man carries a block of ice left behind by a hailstorm in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 19, 2014. After the severe overnight hailstorm a layer of hailstones as deep as 20 centimeters covered streets and parks, drawing people to make snowmen and play in the ice, an unusual scene to the city. (Photo by Nelson Antoine/AP Photo)

A ghost glass frog in the Chocó rainforest, Ecuador in November 2020. The marbled swirling “hypnotising” eyes are thought to be helpful in attracting a mate. (Photo by David Weiller/WENN)

A Palestinian young woman from the Birzeit University looks on during clashes with Israeli security forces in Beit El, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on October 7, 2015. New violence rocked Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including a stabbing in annexed east Jerusalem, even as Israel and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas took steps to ease tensions. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP Photo)

A Palestinian woman paints a mural, depicting a masked Palestinian holding a knife, in support of Palestinians committing stabbing attacks against Israelis, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip November 3, 2015. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Ultra Orthodox Jews look at the body of an alleged Palestinian assailant in Jerusalem Saturday, December 26, 2015. According to a police spokeswoman, policemen approached a man who drew their suspicions just outside the Old City for following a pair of Jewish worshippers. Then he pulled out a knife and tried to stab one of them, officers opened fire and killed the assailant. (Photo by Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo)

Facade of the “Porcelain House”, built by Chinese collector Zhang Lianzhi, on November 1, 2008 in the Heping district of Tianjin, China. Over 400 million porcelain fragments, 5,000 ancient vases, 4,000 antique china dishes and bowls, over 20 tons of crystalline rocks and agate, 400 white marble stone carvings were incorporated in the five year refurbishment of the unique French styled house. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)