How Did Humans Invent the Toilet?

How did humans invent the toilet? Not in a straight line. The Indus Valley had working toilets 4,500 years ago, Europe lost Rome's sewers, and the first flush toilets nearly poisoned London. This video traces the road from a bush to the S-bend. This video covers: • Indus Valley toilets and covered drains in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa • A 2,400-year-old flush toilet found in palace ruins near Xi'an • Roman public latrines, the sponge on a stick and the Cloaca Maxima • Medieval chamber pots, castle garderobes and Tudor gong farmers • Harington's Ajax, Cumming's S-bend and the Thomas Crapper myth • John Snow's cholera map, the Great Stink and Bazalgette's sewers • Why sanitation beat antibiotics in a medical vote What do you call it where you live: toilet, loo, bathroom or WC? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe for more stories of how humans figured things out. ────────── Sources: Mitchell, P. D. — The long and intimate association between humans and parasites through time, Parasitology, 2025 World Health Organization — Sanitation fact sheet; Cholera fact sheet British Medical Journal readers' poll — Greatest medical milestone since 1840 (report, History News Network), 2007 Lorentz, P. & Sandron, D. — Atlas de Paris au Moyen Âge (Canadian Centre for Architecture catalogue record) Science Museum — A flushing story Koloski-Ostrow, A. O. — interview, WBUR Here & Now, 2016; Wald, C. — Ancient Rome's Terrorizing Toilets, Discover, 2014 Cholera and the Thames — The Big Thames Clean Up Confucius Institute news (chinakongzi.org) — Unearthed flush toilet in Shaanxi dates back 2,400 years, 2023 History.co.uk — Sir Joseph Bazalgette and London's sewers Webster (1962) and Mays (2010) via The Civil Engineer — Mohenjo-daro, Mound of the Dead Wikipedia — 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak; Great Stink; Thomas Crapper; Alexander Cumming; John Harington (writer) Disclaimer: For educational and entertainment purposes. Some interpretations are actively debated among researchers and may change as new evidence emerges. Not professional advice. #toilet #historyoftoilets #inventions #ancienthistory #sanitation #romanlatrines #greatstink