The process of making bricks begins with clay, a component of sedimentary rock commonly found on floodplains, riverbanks, or where bodies of water used to be. What makes clay special is that it becomes plastic and mouldable when wet but becomes hard and durable when fired. Clay has been used to create pottery by humans since at least 14,000 BC, with the earliest brick structures dated at 7,000 BC in Turkey.
Clay is excavated from natural clay quarries and stockpiled, levelled with a bulldozer. The clay is stockpiled in layers of different types of clay taken from different parts of the quarry.