Human body museum

Netherlands - - Taller than the fabled Colossus of Rhodes in ancient Greece but not quite as high as the Statue of Liberty in New York City, a giant monument to human health is springing up in the Dutch town Oegstgeest.

Workers are to start construction Thursday on Corpus, a health education museum built around a 35-metre three-dimensional sitting human figure.

Walking through the figure, a visitor has "an inside view of the entire body through organ theatres, such as the beating heart, lungs, sneezing nose and brain," said a statement announcing the project.

Visitors will "walk in through the knee, up the thigh and eventually end up in the brain and eyes," said spokeswoman Veronique van Zanten.

"From there you can look out at the houses and cows" in the surrounding countryside. Oegstgeest is about 35 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam.

The project is the dream of businessman Henri Remmers, who arranged the equivalent of $27 million Cdn in private funding and won the endorsement of the Dutch Health Ministry.

Van Zanten said the museum would educate visitors about all aspects of human health, including sex - in a manner appropriate for children.

"There is the Uterus Theatre, where you will view the moment of conception, viewed from within the body," she said.

"It's very tasteful."

The museum will use holograms, videos and other interactive exhibitions to plumb the hidden secrets of organs, including the stomach, heart and nose.