ZILLIJ (Zellij)

Moroccan mosaic and those of the Islamic world to enhance and beautify buildings are referred to as Zilliij. I have also seen it spelled as "Zellij". The mosaics are created from colorful cut, glazed ceramic tiles arranged into a web of woven color. Walls of Zillij are mesmerizing with their intricate patterning. The genre's masterpiece is surely the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain.

I have found on-line a way-cool tool for creating your own tessallating patterns from which you could develop a design for a mosaic floor or wall. Craig S. Kaplan  has written a Java Applet called TAPRATS that will give you hours of entertainment. I have only tried it on a Internet cable connection that is quite fast, so I do not know how well it works over a slower dial-up line. Probably fine, just slower. The applet does not have a direct PRINT function. I used the keyboard Alt + Print Screen to put a copy of the pattern I made on my computer's clipboard, then pasted it into a graphics program to crop off the Window's toolbar,etc &  print.

If you are interested in Moroccan mosaics, you need to see this incredible book, Morocco Modern-click here