Through the Years: A Gallery of the World's Toilets

By Stephanie Pappas
published

Sanitation in Nepal

A newly built toilet in Nepal.

(Image credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti)

A family stands outside their award winning toilet built with WaterAid's assistance in Beli, Terai region, Nepal

Toilet in Asia

Squat toilet in Asia.

(Image credit: Colman Lerner Gerardo (opens in new tab), Shutterstock (opens in new tab))

A "squat-pot" style toilet built into the floor, a common design in many Asian countries.

Luxury Bathroom

A bidet in a high-end bathroom.

(Image credit: Kletr (opens in new tab), Shutterstock (opens in new tab))

For those who'd like a little luxury in their restroom, there's always the bidet option.

Bathroom at 20,000 Feet

An airplane toilet.

(Image credit: Xaviar Marchant (opens in new tab),Shutterstock (opens in new tab))

Airplane toilets use little water and lots of suction to suck waste into a storage tank until it can be emptied.

Toilet in Space

A space shuttled toilet.

(Image credit: Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience)

Possibly the highest-tech toilets are those used by astronauts in space. Here, a mock-up of the toilets on the Space Shuttle at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.