9 Weirdest Museums In The World (PHOTOS)

What happens when obsessions become collections? Sure, collecting stamps or baseball cards are normal hobbies, but hair? Toilets? The folks over at Lonely Planet put together a handy list of the strangest attractions around the world.

You decide what's odd and what's surprisingly normal. Text courtesy of Lonely Planet.

 

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9 Weirdest Museums

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Sewer Museum, Paris

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Prepare yourself: the ‘galleries’ of the Musée des Egouts de Paris are actually disused sections of Paris‘ sewerage system (fans of Hugo’s Les Misérables will know what to expect). The smell is unbelievable and let that be a warning – you can’t completely eradicate over 100 years of crap. Exhibits include photographs, maps and stuffed sewer rats. As a bonus, you can actually walk around on walkways just above flowing, flushing waste from the stinky Parisians above ground. There’s a souvenir shop, too, that sells…ah… It’s open Saturday to Wednesday; Paris Museum pass holders get in for free.

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Prepare yourself: the ‘galleries’ of the Musée des Egouts de Paris are actually disused sections of Paris‘ sewerage system (fans of Hugo’s Les Misérables will know what to expect). The smell is unbelievable and let that be a warning – you can’t completely eradicate over 100 years of crap. Exhibits include photographs, maps and stuffed sewer rats. As a bonus, you can actually walk around on walkways just above flowing, flushing waste from the stinky Parisians above ground. There’s a souvenir shop, too, that sells…ah…

It’s open Saturday to Wednesday; Paris Museum pass holders get in for free.

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Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Not so bad. Creepy!

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Comments

[Nopinky]

01:20 AM on 08/17/2010

How could they leave out the Sex Machine Museum of Prague??
http://www.sexmachinesmuseum.com/
a mustn't miss :D

[nsfbr]

10:15 PM on 08/16/2010

Not even close. The Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska needs to be on this list. Look it up. I'd post a picture, but the proprietor doesn't allow photography inside (for reasons I'm sure make sense to him.) Yes, it is a museum of hammers. All types, some are hundreds of years old.

[BahtHarim]

12:30 AM on 08/16/2010

I highly recommend the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City (L.A.), Calif.

http://www.mjt.org/

[CBasilJr]

03:38 PM on 08/14/2010

Formerly located on Walter Reed's campus, the Army Medical Museum has to be one of the wierdest (if not the grossest) museums in the world. The sheer size of the factilities and the number of exhibits, including the treatment of wounds from the Civil War through Vietnam, make me believe that it is much more significant than many of the museums listed in this article.

For a more complete understanding of the significance of the Paris Sewer Museum, remember that the sewers of Paris were a favorite location for early movies where a subterranean chase and shootout was necessary. I am only enough to have watched many of those movies and still feel that the reality of the sewers is much better than the sets on a movie set.

[karl sieger]

08:30 PM on 08/13/2010

What--no Museum of Portland Cement? (Now known as Saylor Park & Cement Industry Museum, located in my grandfather's home town of Coplay, PA.)

No Kansas Barbed Wire Museum?

Geez...

[kareemachan]

11:45 AM on 08/13/2010

Japan sure seems to have a thing about weird museums. Besides the one mentioned here, we saw a perfume bottle museum, a museum of weights and measures, ones for ramen, for laundry, for salt and tobacco, and the not-to-be-missed rubber baseball exhibition hall!

[Vince Draa]

11:23 AM on 08/13/2010

You think these are weird...You shoulds see Mueso de las Momias in Guanajuato, Mexico.

http://www.pbase.com/josefiend/mummies

[latoussaint]

02:34 PM on 08/13/2010

I love that museo. The SPAM Museum in Austin, MN is also quite weird and so is the Museum of Prostitution in Virginia City, NV because it is in the basement of a Chinese Restaurant! Also, the Pez Museum in Burlingame, CA. The sewer tour is very historical and informative, I actually think it' s not weird.

[KIVPossum]

01:37 AM on 08/13/2010

There's a toilet museum in Odessa, too.

Left out the musum of sex in Moscow - lot of fun.

[Jeanne Mehallo]

10:50 PM on 08/12/2010

Where's the Albuquerque Rattlesnake Museum??

[gle helle]

01:23 PM on 08/13/2010

In Albuquerque?

[JScott]

10:47 PM on 08/12/2010

Lawn sprinkler museum in Hawaii

Museum Of Jurassic Technology in Culver City Ca.

[Jack Davies]

08:30 PM on 08/12/2010

What? No Wisconsin entries? Toilet paper and mustard museums not weird enough or what? ;P

[bubbuh]

07:59 PM on 08/12/2010

Not even close

Try the Muter Museum in Philadelphia For one
http://www.muttermuseum.org/

[bubbuh]

08:04 PM on 08/12/2010

Oops, Mutter Museum. Among many, many other things it house one of the worlds great collections of skulls.

[rjmtx]

01:24 AM on 08/13/2010

I've always wanted to go there, but never had the chance.

[TheReturn]

04:45 AM on 08/13/2010

If I remember ...Mutter has the world's largest colon on display.

[Leon Stark]

11:25 PM on 08/13/2010

There are all sorts of medical anomalies at the Mutter Museum. It is affiliated with the Philadelphia Medical College. They have (I think) Grover Cleveland's oral tumor).

[bubbuh]

11:35 PM on 08/13/2010

I can safely say that visiting it as a kid helped make me the person i am today! dB-D

[esgabel]

07:49 PM on 08/12/2010

The Tow Truck Museum is really great! I wouldn't have said that before I went there but it is really interesting in a hmey sort of way...
Chattanooga is a wonderful place to visit.
There is also a museum of unique and priceless antique china which was given to the city by the owner who was reclusive and nearly broke. She had tucked away all the antique china that she inherited from her parents, who were antique dealers. There are amazing pieces you will never see anywhere else.

[Bike Commuter]

07:07 PM on 08/12/2010

Any and all doll museums are far more weird.

[busynurse]

06:30 PM on 08/12/2010

The National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin didn't make the list?