Life has never been so good. Mongolian herders call their version a Ger. Yurts go back centuries to the time of Genghis Khan and Marco Polo. Round-shaped with a conical roof and vertical sidewalk, a yurt looks like the pavilions that medieval knights erected during tournaments. Instead of a center pole, a yurt has rafters that can withstand high winds and heavy snowfalls, and shelters an open interior where people can stand up and move around freely.
Yurts have wooden doors and an expandable wooden lattice wall that supports the roof.
In place of goat skins for the roof, a vinyl- covered architectural fabric is now used. Where Mongolian nomads used a woven band to provide tension that holds the yurt together, there is now an aircraft cable in its place. The modern yurt has kiln-dried Douglas fir rafters instead of saplings. The result is a portable structure that can withstand hurricane winds and keep out sub-zero cold. Once the deck floor is built, the yurt can be put up or taken down in a few hours.