Brick Making

This kiln is now almost unpacked. The holes in the floor are where the heat of the flames ascends, and the especially hard-baked bricks from immediately above these are used for construction of water cisterns. [C.B.4]

Traditionally the kilns were fired using camel-thorn growing on the nearby plains. Now oil is used – in the base of the pit several blackened openings under the kilns are visible (bottom left, plus two centrally at the corner of the pit), with some of the pipes used. Each firing takes around 72 hours. [C.B.3]

Here is a packed brick kiln. The red colour means that these bricks have been fired. The clay walls of the kiln, buttressed by bricks, are used and re-used. [C.B.2]

Although many buildings in Iran are built of mud or mud-bricks; baked or burnt bricks have been made from at least the first millennium BCE. The bricks stacked here are drying out after being moulded in simple wooden frames. A full brick-kiln is at right back, cooling off. [C.B.1]