Syria

“Take 60 parts sand, 180 parts ash from sea plants and five parts chalk”. This is the first recipe for making glass as written down in the Assyrian Empire in 658 BC.

Sand was and still is the key ingredient for glassmaking, with quartz grains being the optimal sand. Glass beads from 2500 BC found in Syria are some of the earliest known glass objects.

Syria has played an important role in transforming sand into glass-throughout history.  

For long, all glass worldwide was made to imitate precious stones until the blowpipe, the base of modern glassblowing, was invented. This too in Syria!