History of bricks

brick kiln

For thousands of years people have made brick for building. Most of the bricks of long ago were sun-dried. They were made of mud, usually with straw mixed in to help hold the mud together. The first sun-dried bricks were made in Mesopotamia (what is now Iraq), in the ancient city of Ur in about 4000 BC.
But some centuries later brickmakers learned how to make much harder bricks by baking them in an oven instead of drying them in the sun.
Brick has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.
The Romans made use of fired bricks, and their legions, introduced bricks to many parts of the Roman empire.
Today sun-dried brick is still used in many parts of the world. But what most people mean by brick now is brick that has been made in an oven. An oven for making bricks is called a "kiln".
The mud for brick is clay mixed with water. Some sand is added, too. The mud may be pressed into separate brick molds or made into long strips and then cut into bricks. The bricks are first dried. Then they are "fired." The temperature in a brick kiln may be over 2,000° F. The bricks are very hard when they leave the kiln. "As hard as a brick" is a common saying.
There are different kinds of "fired" brick. Glazed brick and firebrick are two of them. Glazed brick has a coating that makes it as smooth as glass. Firebrick contains much silica, which makes it stand fire well.
Termites do not eat brick. Fire cannot destroy it. Wind and weather do not make it rot. Buildings made of brick last a long time.