Do People Really Live in Igloos?

More fun facts

• Igloo comes from iglu, the Inuktitut word for house, and it means a winter home made of snow.
• In the past, Inuit families and traveling hunters used igloos during the winter season.
• Igloos are no longer the usual Inuit home, but some hunters and people needing emergency shelter still use them.
• Builders choose a flat spot with a special hard snow called pukaangajuq and cut blocks with knives of whale bone or metal.
• The blocks are stacked in a spiral from the inside, with walls that lean inward to make a dome.
• Hard snow walls keep in body heat and heat from a seal oil lamp called a qulliq.
• Igloos are made of snow, not ice, because solid ice does not hold heat as well as packed snow blocks.
• A window can be made from lake ice or a clear piece of seal gut skin.

Sources: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca