Yurt facts for kids

A yurt in Central Asia.

A yurt (also called a ger in Mongolian) is a special kind of portable, round tent. People in the grasslands of Central Asia have used yurts as homes for thousands of years. They are covered with strong materials like animal skins or felt, which is made from wool.

Building a Yurt: How It's Made

A Mongolian Ger, a type of yurt.

Traditional yurts are built with a round wooden frame that can expand and shrink. This frame holds up a thick felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of sheep, which helps keep the yurt warm in winter and cool in summer.

You might wonder where the wood comes from, since the steppes (the flat grasslands where yurts are used) don't have many trees. The wood for the yurt's frame is usually brought from other areas.

Moving Your Home: Easy to Pack Up

One of the best things about a yurt is that it's designed to be taken apart easily. All the pieces can be packed up neatly and carried by animals like camels or yaks. This makes it perfect for nomadic people who move often to find new pastures for their animals.

Putting a yurt back together is also quite fast. It usually takes only about two hours to build a complete yurt!

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  Building a Mongolian Ger: starting with the walls and door frame.

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  Next, people start placing the roof poles.

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  The roof poles are now all in place.

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  A thin inner cover is placed on the roof.

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  Adding the thick felt cover for insulation.

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  Finally, the outer cover is added to protect from weather.

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  A ger sits on the Steppes near Mandalgovi, Mongolia.

More Yurt Pictures

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  A Turkmen woman at the entrance to a yurt in Turkestan in 1913. Picture by Prokudin-Gorskii.

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  Yurts in eastern Afghanistan.

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  Ak Öýi (White Building), "The World's Largest Yurt", in Mary, Turkmenistan. It was opened on November 27, 2015.

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  An American yurt with a deck, located in Kelleys Island State Park.

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  A yurt used as a café in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

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  Inside a yurt, showing a Buddhist symbol called a khorlo on the roof ring (toono). Other Buddhist symbols like khadag and dpaljibeu are also present.

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  A yurt-like structure in the Colorado mountains, USA.

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  A wooden yurt being built in Zakamensky District of Buryatia, Russia.

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  The shangyrak, the top ring of a yurt, which lets light in.

See also

In Spanish: Yurta para niños