Delhi's toilets museum among world's 10 weirdest museums

Washington, May 21: A museum in New Delhi, which traces the history of the toilet for the past 4,500 years, has been ranked third among the world's 10 weirdest museums by Time magazine.

"From simple chamber pots to elaborate decorated Victorian toilet seats, you'll see it all" at Sulabh International Museum of Toilets tracing "the entire evolution of toilets throughout human history", the US magazine said.

There's even a toilet disguised as a bookcase, noted the magazine presenting "10 museums around the world that are anything but mundane" to celebrate International Museum Day.

A highlight of the museum is the replica of the throne of King Louis the XIV. The king is believed to have used this to defecate while conducting court sessions.

"It is indeed a very unusual museum and it's the only one of its kind in the world," says Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak.

"We founded the museum to give a message," he said. "India faces a big challenge in the sanitation sector. So our museum helps policy makers understand the efforts that were made in this field in the past."

Following is the Time list:

1. Icelandic Phallological Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland

2. The Museum of Bad Art, Brookline and Somerville, Massachusetts, USA

3. Sulabh International Museum Of Toilets, New Delhi, India

4. Avanos Hair Museum, Avanos, Turkey

5. The Museum of Broken Relationships, Zagreb, Croatia

6. Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka, Japan

7. International Cryptozoology Museum, Portland, Maine, USA

8. Meguro Parasitological Museum, Tokyo, Japan

9. Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments, Amsterdam, Netherlands

10. The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum, La Crosse, Kansas, USA.

IANS