Alem Center is Ashgabat spectacle in concentrated form: a white-marble entertainment complex built around a giant indoor Ferris wheel. Like many modern sights in the Turkmen capital, it is part attraction, part statement of scale and state ambition.
Whether you ride or just look from outside, it helps explain the city's taste for record-setting architecture. Visit in the evening if possible, when lighting softens the heavy monumentality and makes the complex feel more playful.