Tents: The Ever-useful Temporary Structure

When you hear someone mention tents, you probably immediately think of the camping variety.

However, tents have been used around the world every day for numerous other purposes. Tents have been used in nearly every part of the world for nearly as long as recorded history.

Asian nomadic tribes lived in circular tents because this design helped the structures stand up to extreme conditions and harsh winds. The lightweight and easy deconstruction of the tents made it simple for the tribes to move on to new lands whenever necessary.

Even today, some people make permanent homes of tents. Many tent-dwellers enjoy the small ecological footprint left by tents.

Yurts, tepees and other types of tents are easy to build and rely on renewable resources for their materials. They can easily use alternative energy sources, such as solar power, which is more difficult with traditional framed homes.

Armies all around the world have made use of tents to house soldiers. They set up easily, come down quickly, and don’t require vast amounts of manpower to move to new locations.

Even camping tents aren’t the plain, boring structures they once were. There are plenty of new and interesting types of tents in use today.

The hiking tents used by serious hikers are amazing pieces of technology. The materials used in hiking tents are among the most lightweight and waterproof materials used in any consumer item, and many years of research have gone into developing them.