Greek Island Toilets

This page has modern Greek island toilets. See the Historical Toilets section of the menu at left for several categories of Ancient Greek toilets, and the Mainland Greece page for toilets on the mainland.

Let's start at the very beginning (and end) of the process. Here we see the headquarters of the Municipal Enterprise for Water and Sewage on the island of Mykonos.

This is a typical δημοτικά τουαλέτα (demotika toualeta, or public toilet) on Mykonos. You can see the entrance, and the toilet itself.

The Blu-Blu cafe / lounge / bar / Internet cafe is a good place on Mykonos to get on the net or transfer pictures from your camera to a USB stick.

Or, to use the toilet and wash your hands.

So you wonder what a typical bathroom looks like in a nice budget hotel on Mykonos? Here you go — the full setup at the Philippi Hotel, a very nice place to stay. It's at Kalogera 25 in Hora, +30-22890-22294, chriko@otenet.gr.

Here's the bathroom at the Poseidon Hotel, overlooking the harbor town of Ormos on the island of Ios.

This scenic head is on board the F/B Artemis ferry en route from Ios to Santorini in the Aegean.

I had stayed at Petros Pension on Santorini on a previous trip, and so I got the luxury room on the top floor, the one with the kitchenette.

And, of course, my own bathroom.

These are typical δημοτικά τουαλέτα (demotika toualeta, or public toilets) on Santorini.

The one above is just south of the main square in Fira, the main town on the island.

The one below is just north of that square.

These two toilets are in the Ionian Domatia in Vathy town, on the island of Samos.

They're intense avacado models with forcibly removed seats and lids.

Here is something you find along the path following the ridgeline from the main town of Fira to Oia, on the island of Santorini.

It's technically known as an Aegean mountaintop dual squatter.

This one is in the Rodos Hostel, in the old city of Rodos, on the island of Rhodes. Seatless, as standard in Greece.

This is an overview and detail of the toilets at the Asclepion, on the island of Kos, in the south-eastern Aegean.

Part of the Dodacanese chain, Kos was the home of Hippocrates (460-370 BC). A large medical school (at which Hippocrates taught) was located at the temple to the healing god Asclepius. Patients would come here to seek treatment, or to make offerings of thanksgiving after recuperation.

The Asclepion was in use until 540 AD, so with 940 years of sick people these saw a lot of use....

Also see the New Testament toilets for more Greek examples from that time period.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box."

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

• Travel suggestions
• To Bob's main site