Tent presented to Turkey’s prime minister Erdoğan by the Kazakistan Devlet Başkanı Nursultan Nazarbayev’in in 2011.

A yurt, which is the common form of tent in Central Asia and Mongolia. This one has a cone-shaped dome.

A yurt is a portable, bent dwelling structure traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia as their home. The structure comprises a crown or compression wheel, usually steam bent, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall (again, steam bent). The top of the wall is prevented from spreading by means of a tension band which opposes the force of the roof ribs. The structure is usually covered by layers of fabric and sheep's wool felt for insulation and weatherproofing.
There are two main types of yurt construction, differing from each other by the shape of their dome, which can be of semi-circular shape, or resemble a truncated cone – depending on how much the wooden strut poles of the dome framework are bent.

A medium-size yurt (diameter: four meters), without its content, can be assembled by two people in 25 minutes, and dismantle in 10 minutes. For the large tents, these figures must be doubled.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Günaydın Anadolu – Tradities van Turkije’ – cataloog Tentoonstelling Hessenhuis/Antwerpen 1988
‘Music for the eyes’ – catalogue exhibition Centra Asia / Hessenhuis-Antwerpen (nov 1997-march 1998)
& Wikipedia.