Yurt

A yurt, also known as a ger in Mongolian, is a portable, round tent. It is covered with skins or felt. A yurt is commonly used as a dwelling by nomads in the grasslands of Central Asia.

Construction

A Mongolian Ger

Traditional yurts consist of an expanding wooden circular frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of sheep. The wood to make the external structure is not to be found on the treeless steppes.

A yurt is designed to be dismantled and the parts carried compactly on camels or yaks to be rebuilt on another site. Complete construction takes around 2 hours.

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  Mongolian Ger: starting with walls and door

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  Mongolian Ger: starting to place roof poles

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  Mongolian Ger: with roof poles in place

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  Mongolian Ger: placing the thin inner cover on the roof

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  Mongolian Ger: adding felt cover

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  Mongolian Ger: adding the outer cover

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  A ger sits on the Steppes near Mandalgovi

Yurt Media

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  Kyrgyz yurt near the lake Song-Köl (Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan).

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  A Qaraqalpaq bentwood type "yourte" in Khwarezm (or Karakalpakstan), Uzbekistan

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  Turkmen woman at the entrance to a yurt in Turkestan; 1913 picture by Prokudin-Gorskii

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  Yurt of Kazakhs in the Tian Shan, 200 km northeast of Urumqi at 2100 m a.s.l., August 1991

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  Traditional yurts on the steppes between Ulan Bator and Kharkhorin.

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  Yurts in eastern Afghanistan

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  Kyrgyz yurts, Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China

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  Roof crown of Kyrgyz yurt, Tengri symbol, used in Kyrgyzstan flag

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  Ak Öýi (White Building), yurt shaped concrete building, "The World's Largest Yurt", near Mary, Turkmenistan, established 2015.

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  Buddhist symbols: dharmachakra, represented by the khorlo (Tib: འཀོར་ལོ།) toono; khadag (Tib: ཁ་བཏགས་) hangs from the toono and dpaljibeu (Tib: དཔལ་གྱི་བེའུ) is present on the stove.