Synthesis of cage and ladder silsesquioxanes by the dehydration of silanols using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) is described. The reaction of 1,3-dicyclohexyldisiloxane-1,1,3,3-tetraol with DCC gave octa(cyclohexylsilsesquioxane) in 13% yield. The bicyclic ladder siloxane 3 (Ph(8)Thex(2)Si(6)O(7)) was prepared from 1,1,3,3-tetraphenyldisiloxane-1,3-diol and 1,3-dithexyldisiloxane-1,1,3,3-tetraol (Thex or thexyl denotes 1,1,2-trimethylpropy) at 80 degrees C, In this reaction, the propellane-type cage siloxane 2 (Ph(6)Thex(2)Si(5)O(6)) was generated also. Upon reaction completion at 120 degrees C, only 2 was obtained, The reaction from the same starting compounds with diisopropylcarbodiimide at 80 degrees C resulted in another caged siloxane, Ph(4)Thex(4)Si(6)O(8) (5) The structures of 2, 3 and 5 were determined by X-ray crystallography, Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.