HISTORY

Natural stone is a solid formation of one or more minerals. There are thousands of types that have been extracted from the Earth along the centuries. Quarries are located all over the world, but most natural stone comes from Italy, Spain, Turkey, United States, Mexico, China, Taiwan, India, Greece, Canada, France and Brazil.

Minerals contained in stones originate from the same liquid and gas minerals that formed the Earth. Earth was created from a mass of gases and liquid minerals which slowly cooled down, condensed and solidified. With exertion of pressure, the Earth's crust was formed and heavier minerals were forced to the center of the Earth where they were trapped. The crust started to thicken, squeezed the central nucleus and raised enormous pressure and heat in the Earth's core. Crystals and other solid formations originated from the released vapors and while the crust thickened and eroded, heat and pressure pushed the solidified minerals to its surface creating huge rock formations. Millions of years consolidated some of theses formations and many of them are the mines from which the so called natural stone is extracted nowadays to be used by the construction industry.

A great range of stones may be identified by its color, hardness and crystal formation, which may appear in various forms and sizes. Many stones look similar to one another, but in fact they are all different.