The World’s Most Bizarre Museums

Featuring hair, toilets and phallic specimen.
by Bong Sta. Maria | May 28, 2015

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Travelers of the world, time to save up. Ideas for your next destinations are about to be revealed.

Below are some of the world’s strangest museums that you can visit today. We’ve also listed the websites and addresses down for you, in case you’d like to make these your next destinations. Enjoy!

Icelandic Phallological Museum
Reykjavik, Iceland

The museum’s name says it all, but read on if you’re interested in everything…phallological.

This museum in Iceland’s coastal capital has the world’s largest collection of phallic specimens. The current collection has nearly 300 pennile specimens of 93 animal species.

The current penis count: 55 from whales, 36 from seals, and 118 from land mammals. The curator, Hjörtur Gísli Sigurösson, is a man who dedicated his life collecting penises.

In 2011, the first human penis, donated by a man named Pall Arason, was exhibited (this did not go according to plan because the penis shriveled up after removing it from Arason’s body and drenched in formalin. Needless to say, yikes.

Address: Laugavegur 116, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland

Sulabh International Museum of Toilets
Delhi, India

This museum has a collection of toilets from 2500 BC to present. Aside from providing information on toilet developmets, social customs, and etiquette, this place also aims to to promote sanitation and waste management. There are even some poems dedicated to toilets and their usage!

Address: Sulabh Bhawan, Mahavir Enclave, Palam Dabri Marg, New Delhi, India
Open all Days, except on Indian national holidays

Museum of Enduring Beauty
Melaka, Malaysia

This museum explores the different ways the world sees beauty. From foot binding to tattooing, from tooth-filling to scarification, this place provides you with information, photos, and artifacts used (and still being used) by different cultures around the world.

Address: Level 3, of the People’s Museum, Melaka, Malaysia

Avanos Hair Museum
Avanos, Turkey

Located in small town in Turkey’s Cappodocian area, this museum is located a pottery center and guest house. It all began in 1979, when a friend of owner/potter Turkish potter Chez Galip cut off some hair and gave it as a remembrance. After telling the story to people, more and more women started doing the same. All 16,000 of them.

Claustrophobes might have problems checking this out, though. Aside from hair gathered from thousands of women, this is also located in a cave. If hair isn’t your thing, maybe you can just check out Galip’s great pottery collection.

Address: Avanos City Center

Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers
Tennessee, United States

It all started with the absence of a pepper shaker at home. Husband and wife Rolf and Andrea looked for one, and the rest is history. “At first we found one or two, then three or four, until it became an entertainment. Soon we found the world of shakers, where the shapes, themes and colors are endless (as you will see),” Andrea wrote.

Today, there are over 20,000 sets of salt and pepper shakers from all over the world in the museum. They also have a sister museum in Spain called Museo de Saleros y Pimenteros.

Address: 461 Brookside Village Way, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, United States

Museum of Broken Relationships
Zagreb, Croatia

Zagreb artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić are the two people behind this museum, which has had international exhibitions. The Museum of Broken Relationships creates beauty out of ruins, a place that “offers a chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creation.”

The personal objects–from a shampoo container to an axe–were all once owned by lovers. If you have a memento that you’d like to donate, you can try handing them over to these guys, too.

Address: Ćirilometodska 2, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

 

Which one will you visit first? Explain why in the comments!