Unusual and interesting toilets from all around the world.

Toilets of the World

Welcome to the Toilets of the World

Are you wondering why people hoard toilet paper? Wondering how to use a bidet, or even what a bidet is? Curious about what the toilets are like in other countries? Toilets from ancient history? Do you wonder who invented the flush toilet? (It wasn't Thomas Crapper!) You've come to the right place!

Toilets around the world:
Belgium Bulgaria China France Greek Islands Japan Morocco Trinidad Russia and many others
Toilets from throughout history:
The Stone Age Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Bible era King Arthur's England Invention of the flush toilet To the toilets of the future

182 days until Thomas Crapper's birthday

241 days until World Toilet Day

Answers for your important questions: Why do people hoard toilet paper? Did Thomas Crapper invent the flush toilet? Should I squat or sit? Should I wipe or wash? Where do I put used paper, in the bowl or in the bin? When did public toilets become segregated by sex? What is a bidet? What is a toilet snorkel? Should I incinerate my sewage in the basement?
Toilets of world leaders, artists, and authors: The Ottoman Sultan Woodrow Wilson Leon Trotsky Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler Dwight Eisenhower Robert Kennedy William Shakespeare Edgar Allan Poe Vincent Van Gogh Jim Morrison Lady Gaga

Did Thomas Crapper Invent the Flush Toilet?
Is His Name the Origin of the Word "Crap"?

No, and No

Wikimedia Commons image of Thomas Crapper, who did not invent the flush toilet.

Thomas Crapper was an English plumber and industrialist, but he was not the inventor of the flush toilet. The modern flush toilet design dates back to 1596, 240 years before Thomas Crapper's birth in 1836. English patents for flush toilets were issued in the 1770s. Public toilets were installed in England in 1854, when Crapper was just 18. And as for the word "crap", it has been used in English since 1440, based on Middle English crappe which came from earlier Dutch and Old French words, which in turn came from medieval Latin.

Toilets have been around at least since 3,000 BC when the Neolithic settlers of Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland built toilet chambers at the corners of their stone homes.

Those late Stone Age toilets had a drainage system to remove waste, although it is unclear whether they had a true water flushing system or not. A flushing system connected to a common sewage disposal system existed by 2,600 BC in the cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa in the Indus Valley Civilization. The Minoan civilization on Crete and Thera had flushing toilets by 1,800 BC.

Read more about Thomas Crapper »

Today's Featured Toilet
Toilette au couloir in the Hotel du Palais, Rouen, France.
Lower-cost French hotels, the far more interesting ones where you meet and talk with the owners, sometimes have en suite rooms (with their own toilets) but they frequently feature a toilette au couloir, a toilet down the hall as seen above.

The shower may be down the hall, or even on a different floor. Go to the front desk and get the shower key, and make sure to return it when you're finished!

I have an extensive collection of French toilets, including pissior publics, brasserie toilets, the Paris sewers, on board the high-speed French trains, and the automated public toilets invented in France years ago and only recently appearing in the U.S.,
Check back tomorrow for another featured toilet!
Who is the Toilet Guru?
Bob Cromwell seated on the ancient public toilets in Ephesus.

Who is the Toilet Guru? Is he obsessed? What is it like to be the Toilet Guru? Why does this site exist?

Read more

Let's visit the toilets!