A snow fort or snow castle is a usually open-topped temporary structure made of snow walls that is usually used for recreational purposes. Snow forts are generally built by children as a playground game or winter pastime and are used as defensive structures in snowball fights. They are also built and used for make-believe games such as "house", "store", or "community", a game where multiple forts are built in a group. Along with the snowman, it is one of the two structures commonly built by children out of snow.
A large snow fort in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Little snow fort built with a plastic tub (Moscow, Russia)
A snow fort in Washington, D.C., United States
The Snowking Winter Festival castle under construction
An igloo, also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow.
Community of igluit (Illustration from Charles Francis Hall's Arctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux, 1865)
Interior of an igloo (early 1900s)
A nearly complete, medium-sized igloo, with excavation under the door and the exterior unfinished
Interior of an igloo, facing the passageway leading to the entrance