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

157 days until Thomas Crapper's birthday

216 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

Wipe or Wash?
Paper or Water?

Toilet with built-in bidet in Genova, Italy.

"Squat or sit?" is probably the biggest toilet question for international travelers, especially for Americans. That may be the case partly because Americans don't even know that they need to also ask this question: What do the locals use to clean themselves, and therefore what will they provide for me: Toilet paper or water?

Imagine that you are an American traveling overseas.

You check into a hotel, only to discover that you don't have a shower or tub in your room. Nor is there one down the hallway.

Quickly, you go back downstairs to the front desk.

You inquire at the front desk about where you should take a shower, and the desk clerk is horrified that you would want to do such a thing.

You are told that what you should do is rub dry paper all over your body. That is the very best way of getting clean. Spraying water on your body would be a dirty practice! Don't behave that way in our hotel!

OK, now you know how everyone else feels when they hear an American say that toilet paper is extremely clean but using water is a filthy practice.

Read more about cleaning yourself with toilet paper and water »

Today's Featured Latrine
Ancient Greek toilets in Ephesus, in west Turkey.
These nice marbled topped toilets are in the public latrine at Έφεσος or Ephesus in western Asia Minor, today's Turkey. Ephesus was one of the Roman Empire's major cities. Major political and business deals would have made in this communal atmosphere.

See pictures of New Testament era toilets in Ephesus, Hierapolis, and Corinth, and read about how attitudes about privacy have changed through the centuries in Privies, Privacy and Power. Lyndon Johnson had some toilet habits that go back to the Romans and beyond that to Mesopotamian potentates of the second millennium BC!
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!