Central Asian Architecture
The nomadic people of Central Asia generally lived in yurts, portable houses made of a foldable wood frame with felted wool coverings over it. (This is actually a lot like our houses, which are also wood frame and sometimes use felt for insulation). These are some yurts.
Bibi Hanum Mosque, Samarkand (1300's AD)
Other people, who mainly lived in Russia, lived in small houses built from wood, like American log cabins. This was originally a Scandinavian idea, and the Vikings may have brought it to Russia.
Among the bigger buildings that people built in Central Asia were mosques and churches. People usually built mosques and churches out of stone. The Turks built the first mosques in Central Asia about 1000 AD. Soon after that, many people in Russia converted to Christianity and began to build churches like the ones they had seen in Constantinople.
To find out more about Central Asian history, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Tales
Told in Tents: Stories from Central Asia
by Sally Pomme Clayton (2000). For kids.
Empire Of The Mongolians, by Michael Burgan (2005). Young adult.
