68 architecture: Asia and the Pacific how many sections of latticework are used in the walls It was designed for portability and for ease of setup and takedown The walls of the typical medieval yurt consisted of light wooden lattices, while the roof was composed of wooden ribs that were lashed to the wall The lattices folded into small, lightweight sections; the heaviest part was usually the door, which was made of solid wood and fit into a light rectangular frame in the wall Thick felt mats covered the whole structure; several layers of felt mats might be used, as the interior had to be kept warm even when outside temperatures dropped to 40 degrees below zero The yurt was sturdy enough to endure severe windstorms India Most Indian structures of the medieval era were made of wood, which has proved problematic for modern researchers into India’s architecture: Much of India is very humid and subject to frequent rainfall, contributing to the decay of wood Further, India’s territories were invaded repeatedly by Islamic bandits and sometimes by armies, and the invaders objected to the Indian inclination to decorate buildings with images of their deities Thus, beginning in the 1100s entire palaces and cities of wood were burned to the ground, destroying most of India’s architecture By the end of the medieval era few wooden structures remained untouched As a result, historians have only a skewed view of medieval Indian architecture: Stone buildings are what remain to represent the architecture of the period, yet stone buildings were the exception and not the rule in medieval Indian construction Some of the architecture of wooden buildings can be deduced from the surviving stone structures, from modern structures built using traditional methods, and from medieval writings about buildings The writings of Indians and Chinese Buddhist pilgrims tell of buildings rich in art Even modest wooden walls would be carved with images of animals, plants, benevolent spirits, and gods and goddesses Indian architects believed that no building was complete without images of women on it Cities featured buildings of two stories or more, and people could watch city life from their upper windows The wooden palaces were said to be spectacularly beautiful, with open courtyards surrounded by gardens and brightly decorated walls Among the world’s most spectacular medieval structures were the cave temples and monasteries of India The practice of carving whole temples out of solid rock seems to have begun in southern India in the ancient period In the Deccan Plateau The Mosque of Delhi and the Iron Pillar; watercolor on paper, India, 13th century (Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Charles Lang Freer)