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jacal

/həˈkɑl/
IPA guide

Other forms: jacales

A jacal is a hut made of poles, mud, and a roof of branches or reeds. To see one, the best places to look are Mexico and the Southwestern United States.

Jacales, while having their own unique style, use a building technique common all over the world for hundreds of years: wattle and daub. This type of structure is built by first erecting a frame, usually of wood, and then coating it with a substance that is malleable when wet but solid when dry, such as mud. The roof is typically made of reeds, straw, or woven branches. Jacales are notable for being made with long, thin poles as the primary frame.

Definitions of jacal
  1. noun
    a thatched-roof hut in Mexico and the Southwestern U.S., made by driving poles into the ground and spreading mud or clay over them
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