Thursday, Mar 28 2024
All Cities
Choose Your City
'Russian efficiency regarding train arrival and departure times is astonishing.'
0

Loo with a view!

By 0 and 0 and 0
24 November 2013

0

Dare to try? Kara-Tyurek weather station lavatory in Altai mountains. Picture: Kara-Tyurek weather station

Imagine the pizzazz you need for a night time dash to this precarious privy perched on the edge of a sheer cliff some 2,600 metres above sea level in the Altai Mountains. Perhaps not. 

This loo with a view serves the remote weather station at Kara-Tyurek - literally Black Heart in the local South Altayan language - which began working in 1939. Five staff man the station at this outpost, and this is their only toilet. 

They are visited once a month by a postman to collect the weather data, and a helicopter delivers supplies of food and water each autumn. Wood too, to burn on the stove, because there are no trees in this bleak landscape. 

A recent survey of privies with panache by Interfax news agency in Belarus explained: 'The toilet is perhaps the most unromantic place possible, but there are some parts of the world where people have made them something really special.' This Siberian commode was listed as the 'most extreme' in the world where the fear evaporates only after years using it.

the most extreme loo in the world


the most extreme loo in the world


the most extreme loo in the world


the most extreme loo in the world

Whether the weather is fine.... the loo at the top of the world. Pictures: Kara-Tyurek weather station

In contrast, the most expensive toilet was rated as being at the Swiss Horn Gold Palace in Hong Kong.

'It took several years and three tons of gold to assemble it. Everything in the toilet is made of gold, including the walls and ceiling, so visitors are obliged to put on  protective footwear to enter the loo. 

'The scariest loo was found in Guadalajara, Mexico. It sits right on top of an open lift shaft on the 15th floor of a building. There is a layer of glass which  constructors promise protect visitors from falling.'

The report stated: 'If visitors to the Mexican loo get assurances that the glass is unbreakable, here the fear goes - and only partially! - after years of using it'. Ok, but the views! 

Siberian mountaintop lavatory is 'the most extreme toilet in the world'


the most extreme loo in the world
the most extreme loo in the world

Siberian mountaintop lavatory is 'the most extreme toilet in the world'

Comments (6)

Historians searching for campsites of the early North American explorers Lewis and Clark find them rather easily due to high levels of mercury in the party's poop. Mercury was consumed as a cure for "stomach aliments".

My point is with all the different drugs people are taking nowdays it seems like poop isn't 100% biodegradable.
Willie Walters, Circle, Montana USA
20/12/2013 21:23
1
0
@ Lassie: I'd imagine land that's been treated with a belligerently biodegradable and at least somewhat fertile substance looks pretty nice. Nature isn't clean.
Jeff, Mmhm.
18/12/2013 08:17
1
0
@Lassie from the Usa isn't that smart! Shit is waste? It's just good for the ground! You made me laugh! Are do you use plastic as toilet paper in the usa? hahaha
Romke, the Netherlands
29/11/2013 19:49
2
0
The last two commenters must think Poo is some sort of Uranium . (it lasts forever )or it is just negative thinking ?


I think it's a great photo ,and a good story , hmmm I would think the only concern would be is --WHAT'S in those bags ??? Personally i hope its the heaviest substance on this planet , because there is nothing worse than getting caught with your pants down .





Patrick .






Patrick Travers, Perth Australia
28/11/2013 14:05
3
0
That's what I thought. Just let go and let the waste build up somewhere down there, out of sight, out of mind? It sounds like China, or Nepal. I heard there is no modern plumbing in Nepal and they just go "in the bushes" or by the side of the road. And on Mt. Everest. There are potties for remote regions that incinerate the waste right there, but I suppose that's too technical and expensive.

:-p :-(
Lassie, USA
28/11/2013 00:01
1
5
so then everything just goes down? and what if the wind blows in the wrong direction, how does it feel for others at weather station? And what does the land underneath looks like after years of this 'loo'ing down?'
Peter, Asia
25/11/2013 11:08
2
0
1

Add your comment

We welcome a healthy debate, but do not accept offensive or abusive comments. Please also read 'Siberian Times' Privacy Policy

Name

Town/Country

Add your comments

The views expressed in the comments above are those of our readers. 'Siberian Times' reserves the right to pre-moderate some comments.

Control code*

Type the code

* obligatory


Features

Business

The Bank of Russia official exchange rates of foreign currencies
EUR99.71USD92.26GBP116.52Other...