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 Turkey 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

246 days until Thomas Crapper's birthday

305 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

Privacy and Power
The Throne Behind the Power

Ancient Greek toilets in Korinthos, Greece.

Attitudes about privacy have changed through the centuries, with much of that change coming very recently when most of the western world has become prosperous enough to afford it. National rulers and others wielding great power play by a different set of rules. This includes not caring about privacy while using the toilet. This goes back to the Bronze Age and continued through medieval times, but recent leaders such as U.S. President Lyndon Johnson have practiced Bronze-Age-style toilet habits.

The one theme constant from Old Testament times to today is that one of the privileges of great power or high social station is the lack of concern for privacy. It wasn't so much about privacy as it was about power and privilege.

Actions or situations that might be distasteful or embarrassing for commoners were not to those in power. Royalty and nobility could behave however they pleased.

This same "open toilet policy" for aides and emissaries continued at least as late as the 1963-1969 administration of the U.S. president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Read more about power and privacy »

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!