Igloo-The ice house

The Snow House – Igloo

Igloos, or the Ice Houses are generally built of snow and ice in very cold places. An igloo is a dome-shaped building, with blocks of ice built up in a spiral. The roof has a small hole for ventilation. The short door opening and a tunnel in front of the dome structure stops the heat from flowing outside and keeps the igloo warmer than the outside weather.

Igloo on the Cairngorm Plateau

Sometimes, blankets can be hung on the outside of the igloo so that the cold does not reach the inside.

The construction process of igloo is very interesting. Compact bricks of snow are cut from snow so that they are strong, and the structure is built without using any cement. The heat from the humans living inside melts the bricks and fuses them together. Wow!

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Aren’t you thinking now, who lives inside the igloos? Is it the Penguins :) Ha! Not really!

Igloos are mostly built as a hunting or a camping station or as a temporary house by humans. And sometimes for living permanently – for example by people like the Eskimos or the Inuits ( are a group of native people inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, the United States, and Russia ). They build larger igloos that they use as permanent home for their families. In fact sometimes when they have more than one family living close by they build a network of igloos connected together by tunnels.

Did you know that there are igloo hotels? The Kakslauttanen Hotel, in Finland gives visitors the special opportunity to admire the Northern Lights from the comfort and warmth of their own glass igloo.

Now I have a question for you – Why is an igloo dome shaped? Well, an arched dome shape is a balanced shape. It can support itself and stay strong even during arctic storms when powerful winds blow. In addition to the strength the shape provides, it also provides good insulation due to minimal surface area of the spherical section.

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Comments

17 responses to “The Snow House – Igloo”

  1. Hello Avatar
    Hello

    Igloos are cold.

  2. esha Avatar
    esha

    Amazing article.

  3. Arusha Avatar
    Arusha

    Wow!thats really cool,and the illustrations are just fantastic,so please put more on snow!
    Please answer this question,that is “why do the father not mother penguin take care of the baby?please answer soonN

  4. Jaydan Avatar
    Jaydan

    Im am studing about igloos thacks it is helping me a lot i will win

  5. geethanjali Avatar
    geethanjali

    good but i want to know why it is dome shaped?

  6. kinooze Avatar
    kinooze

    Hi Geethanjali,
    A dome shape is a balanced shape. It can support itself and stay strong in the time of powerful winds and other natural disasters.
    Thanks for asking the question.
    Team Kinooze

  7. adia Avatar
    adia

    very helpful for studying

  8. serina Avatar
    serina

    Thanks a lot I’m doing an oral on igloos and I don’t know a thing about them but thank you for this. And I have a question, where are igloos mostly built and how do you know so much about igloos?

  9. A Pringle Avatar
    A Pringle

    Is the igloo strong and is it safe.

  10. Pranav Avatar
    Pranav

    I want to know more about the people who live in snow and their lifestyle how they live

  11. ojas Avatar
    ojas

    who are eskimos

  12. Aarav Avatar
    Aarav

    where are the washrooms?

  13. MLB Avatar
    MLB

    not if you put snow in bitween

  14. FZ Avatar
    FZ

    Thanks alot my teacher said i have to research about igloos but i did not know anything about them then after i found this website i knew lots about igloos and it helped me alot thanks so much

  15. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    Great article my daughter wanted to know about igloos and it made me feel a smarter too Thanks for Publishing.

  16. Luna Avatar
    Luna

    Wow! Living in a igloo looks really interesting. But do those igloos have necessary facilities for living? I mean, how could an Eskimo family survive inside such a small house in a freezing cold environment without even having a sufficient amount of drinking water and food for their survival?

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