The word adobe is in wide use in the United States of America and Spanish speaking countries. It can mean adobe bricks, the soil that used to make them, the mud plaster, the building that is built of adobe bricks, and the architectural style, which has several sub-divisions. Other forms of the same material with different details and names, such as rammed earth, Pis , Jacal, Barjareque, or puddled mud are sometimes referred to as adobe.
Earth is man s oldest building material.
Various forms of earth-wall buildings are used in different climates. For example, it takes several days of dry weather to cure adobe bricks so they may be handled and used to build a wall. The resulting bricks can be almost any shape or size, and are laid up with a mortar made of the same material, soil and water. In the summer it takes about a week of hot dry weather for the bricks to cure adequately for handling and use. Other seasons or bad weather may take longer.