Yurt

A yurt, also called a ger, is a round, portable dwelling traditionally used by nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Inner Asia. Its walls are made from a flexible lattice of wood or bamboo, and the structure includes a door frame, roof ribs, and a crown—a wheel-like compression ring that may be steam-bent. The entire frame is covered and insulated with skins or felt. Setting up or taking down a yurt takes between half an hour and three hours, and it typically houses five to fifteen people. For thousands of years, nomadic pastoralism (herding) with yurts has been the primary way of life in Central Asia, especially Mongolia.

The word *yurt* comes from the Turkic languages, while *ger* comes from the Mongolic languages. In modern Turkish and Uzbek, *yurt* can mean "homeland" or "dormitory"; in Azerbaijani, *yurd* mainly means "homeland" or "motherland." The Russian term *yurta* is the source of the English word. Other names for similar structures include "black house," "felt house," "grey house," "Mongol house," and "white house" in various regional languages, as well as terms like *alachyk*, *balaghan*, *chador*, *shator*, *kerege*, *og*, *otagh*, and *tirma*. The *yaranga* is a related tent-like mobile home used by some indigenous peoples of Russia, such as the Chukchi and Siberian Yupiks.

Yurts have been a distinctive feature of Central Asian life for at least two and a half thousand years. The first possible written description of a yurt-like dwelling comes from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who recorded such tents as the homes of the Scythians, a nomadic horse-riding people living from around 600 BC to AD 300 in the northern Black Sea and Central Asian regions—though scholars debate whether his account specifically describes a yurt. During the 13th century, at the height of the Mongol Empire, yurts spread to parts of Europe and the Middle East. Marco Polo’s writings mention their use in the court of Kublai Khan. In recent times, yurts have gained attention in the West for their unique aesthetics and practicality.

Traditional yurts are built with an expanding wooden circular frame covered in felt, which is made from sheep wool. The timber for the frame must be traded from valleys, as the treeless steppes do not provide it. The frame includes one or more expanding lattice wall sections, a door frame, bent roof poles, and a crown.