If you hear people talk about Zellige (pronounced zill-eejh) tile you might be curious to know what hey mean. Zellige is a specific type of terracotta tile that originated in Morocco.
Moroccan Zellige tiles are so different from other types of tile that a word had to be created especially for it, namely the Arabic word الزلي, zellige or zellij which means “tile.”
Specifically, Zellige is mosaic tilework made from individually chiseled geometric tiles set into a plaster base. The interlocking edges or “teeth” is what keeps the intricate patterns intact when repeated on larger surfaces.
Today Zellige primarily refers to traditional glazed, cut terracotta tiles from Fez, the ancient city of mosaics. The unique clay from this region is primarily composed of Kaolinite. Continue reading “5 Reasons to Love Zellige Tile”
