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A wax figure of Luciano Pavarotti in Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Like the wax museum at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada most wax museums allow you to pose for pictures with the figures.

A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection wax figures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses.

Wax museums often have a special section dubbed the chamber of horrors in which the more grisly exhibits are displayed.

See also: death mask

Wax museums can be changed to Marie Tussaud, who traveled Europe with wax sculptures in the late 1700s.

Madame Tussauds is perhaps the most famous name associated with wax museums. In 1835 Madame Tussaud established her first permanent exhibition in London's Baker Street. There are also Madame Tussauds in Dam Square, Amsterdam; Hong Kong; Shanghai; and two locations in the USA: the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in Times Square in New York City (with a third being built in Washington, D.C.). Louis Tussaud's wax museum in San Antonio, Texas, is across the street from the historic Alamo.

One of the most popular wax museums in the United States for decades was The Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, California, near Knott's Berry Farm. The museum opened in 1962 and through the years added many wax figures of famous show business figures. Several stars in fact attended the unveilings of the wax incarnations. The museum closed its doors on October 31, 2005, after years of dwindling attendance; however, a Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum nearby remains open.

Another popular wax museum is the Musee Conti Wax Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, which features wax figures portraying the city's history as well as a "Haunted Dungeon" section of wax figures of famous characters of horror films and literature. Another popular wax museum in the U.S. is the Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California.

The Royal London Wax Museum in downtown Victoria, Columbia, Canada, features "royalty to rogues and the renowned." [1]

• House of Wax horror films, based on wax museums

• How to make a wax figure