Ceramic tiles

Ceramic tiles are extremely popular today because they are extremely easy to maintain, very cost effective over a long term and they look great. However, they are also more expensive to install although most people tend to look to the lifetime savings they will have when using them. So what exactly is the history of the ceramic tile?

Tiles are wondrous and have a very long history going back to as far as ancient Egypt nearly 6000 years ago in 4000 BC. It is said that tiles are the simplest, oldest form of ceramic art and throughout history tiles were made by many cultures including the Babylonians, The Islamic Empire and the Assyrians. Early tiles can be seen in Tunisia, Kashan Iran and many varied middle-eastern mosques display Koranic scripts using highly colored relief tiles from around the 12th century onwards.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, many of Europe's Churches were paved with decorated tiles and Holland even became an important center for the trade of tiles in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century – Britain itself became added even more prestige for their methods of mass-producing tiles.