Tents scale from solo bivouacs to circus canvases for thousands
A tent shelters with fabric over poles or ropes, pegged when large. Iron Age texts mention them; Romans used leather versions; canvas later lightened armies. Plains tipis, with smoke holes, may reach thousands of years into the past.
Genesis names Jabal as the first person to live in tents while herding flocks, and modern re-enactors have pitched copies of Roman leather tents successfully. Ridge designs dominated military camps; World War I rear areas grew bigger support tents. Recreational lines split ultralight backpacking shells from car-camping rooms. Shapes include A-frame, pyramid, hoop, and dome.
Nomads around the world, including Mongolian, Turkic and Tibetan herders and the Bedouin, have long lived in tents, and styles such as the yurt grew from those traditions. Armies favour them because they go up and come down fast. The US Department of Defense, one of the largest users, sets strict specifications and houses barracks, dining halls, headquarters and checkpoints under canvas, using the TEMPER modular tent and, more recently, the DRASH shelter with provisions for heating and air conditioning.
A car-camping tent usually takes 5 to 25 minutes to pitch and about as long to strike, and some spring-loaded designs pop up in seconds. Pole marquees cover weddings, festivals and construction digs. In disasters and war, aid groups such as UNHCR hand out cotton canvas tents because the fabric breathes, but for refugees who cannot return home these temporary shelters sometimes become long-term dwellings. In the past decade, clusters of tents have also become a visible sign of homelessness in the United States and Canada, where they are called tent cities.
Source: Tent
