Toilets From Around the World
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Sian James and Morna E. Gregory
Needles Not Included
A toilet fashioned from a giant cactus awaits its next al fresco patron on a hiking trail in Bolivia. Caveat squatter: Those are not corncobs in the background.
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Sian James and Morna E. Gregory
George Washington Sat Here
This seven-hole outhouse behind Tulpehocken Manor in Myerstown, Pa., featured separate-but-unequal facilities for 18th-century users (including, possibly, George Washington): The women's side was larger to accommodate cumbersome hoop dresses.
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Sian James and Morna E. Gregory
Stand-up Gals Only, Please
The "Urinette" in Montreal's Whiskey Cafe is, yes, a urinal designed for women. That scary-looking white protuberance? It's actually a handle, used to rotate the cup 180 degrees into position. A wall dispenser provides paper covers for each successive user.
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Sian James and Morna E. Gregory
Peek-a-loo
By day (left) it appears to be nothing but a keyhole-shaped manhole cover on Moor Street in London. Every Thursday at dusk, however, a three-man pop-up urinal rises into position (right) from below street level, providing semiprivate relief for the long weekend to needy pub-crawlers.
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AP Photo
P-tree Dish
A so-called P-tree provides on-the-spot relief for music lovers at Denmark's annual four-day Roskilde Music Festival in late June.
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Sian James and Morna E. Gregory
Marble Magnificence
These elegant Victorian urinals were installed at Scotland's Rothesay Pier resort in 1899. Built for just $850, the facilities were saved from destruction in 1994 by the Strathclyde Building Preservation Trust — which paid $480,000 for the restoration overall.
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Koji Sasahara/AP Photo
Courtesy Is No. 1
A staffer from Japan's Toto Ltd. activates the company's "Sound Princess" toilet, which emits artificial flushing sounds. Now standard in new construction, the device was invented to conserve water: Japanese women had traditionally flushed continually to mask their bathroom visits.
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EyesWideOpen/Getty Images
May Thine Aim Be True
This composting toilet — an unusual variation on the world's ubiquitous "squat toilets" — greets enlightenment seekers at the Yoga Magic Eco Retreat in Anjuna, India.
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Sian James and Morna E. Gregory
Seek Out an Old Pal
A toilet shaped like a kangaroo and a urinal that's bearly there await upscale buyers at a bathroom fixture store in Izmir, Turkey.
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Mike Clarke/AFP/Getty Images
Throne of Gold
Vladimir Lenin may or may not have been punning when he said that gold toilets would be useful reminders of capitalist waste. But a Hong Kong jeweler took him at his word: This 24-karat solid gold toilet in the city's 3-D Gold Shop will set you back a cool $3.5 mil.
