The adobe dwellings built by the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest are admired by even the most modern of architects and engineers. In addition to their simple beauty, what makes the adobe dwellings admirable is their ablity to “air condition” a house without useing electric equipment. Walls made of adobe take in the heat from the sun on hot days and give out that heat slowly during cool nights, thus warming the house. When a new day breaks, the walls have given up their heat and are now cold enough to cool the house during the hot day:at the same time, they warm up again for the night. This cycle goes day after day: The walls warm up during the day and cool off during the night and thus always a timely offset(抵消)for the outside temperatures. As natural architects, the Pueblo Indians figured out exactly how thick the adobe walls needed to be to make the cycle work on most days.