Igloo

Igloos are small, temporary shelters that are built by the Inuit people in the Arctic regions of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. 

They are made from blocks of snow and are designed to provide a warm, dry place to sleep in the extreme cold. 

Because they are made from snow, igloos have excellent insulation properties and can maintain a relatively warm interior temperature even when the outside temperature is extremely cold. In fact, the temperature inside an igloo can be as much as 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the outside temperature. 

Igloos are also very strong and can withstand the weight of a person standing on top of them. However, they are not meant to be permanent structures and are typically only used as temporary shelters during hunting and other outdoor activities.

A skilled, experienced Inuit can build a sturdy igloo in as little as 40 minutes, using nothing but a knife and their hands.

The University of Calgary offers a two-day course in igloo building.

For 100 years, the flag of the tropical Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies mistakenly featured an igloo.

An enterprising New Yorker built an igloo in Brooklyn following the 2016 Winter Storm Jonas and listed it for $200 per night on AirBnB.

A quinzhee is a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of settled snow, while an igloo is made from stacking blocks of hard snow.

There’s an igloo village at the base of the Matterhorn Mountain, which is home to the world’s largest snow igloo.