MADAME TUSSAUD’S

Every day, long queues of visitors are formed in front of Madame Tussaud's. People wait to enter the museum to see some of the most famous people in the world, kings, queens, princesses, musicians, politicians, stars, and even some famous criminals. You may get really close to them, if you want. You can even take selfies with them. You don’t even have to ask. Actually, they cannot answer, because they are all sculptures made of wax.

The very first wax model of a person was made by a woman from Strasbourg in 1765. When she was a child, she learnt how to make wax models of people. Then she moved to Paris and then to London to perform her art. She was constantly on tour with her wax figures, exhibiting them all around the two countries. When she finally settled in London, she was 70 years old, too old to work and tour. There, she opened her own museum Madame Tussaud's in 1835. It has been one of the city's most popular attractions ever since.

Some of the most popular figures in the exhibition are royalty and stars. Princess Diana has been the most visited figure for several years, and other popular sculptures include David Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Freddie Mercury. The "chamber of horrors", with its famous murderers and their tools of crime is also a very popular part of the museum!

Creating these wax modals is a difficult job. It takes almost a year to create only one of them. The sculptors use hundreds of photos to get the perfect resemblance. For example, it took 320 hours to re-produce Spice Girl Mel G's famous curly hair! In all, a wax figure costs over £50,000 to make! You may wonder what happens to the famous people of the past? Well, they are taken out of the galleries, and their heads are stored for a while. Then, if it is clear that no one will ever want to see them again, they are melted down and re-used for another person!