Thatched Roofs

                     
I once came across this thatched roof house somewhere in England, and of course, I took a photo of it. They are quite popular in the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Korea, Denmark, parts of France, Sicily, Belgium, and Ireland. There are more than 60,000 thatched roofs in the United Kingdom and over 150,000 in the Netherlands. Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, bulrushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed—trapping air—thatching also functions as insulation. Palm trees are also popular in tropical countries, and are found in Fiji, Hawaii, Bali, while sugar cane leaves are popular in Kenya.