Most people know what marble countertops are, but just where does this beautiful material come from? It comes from the Earth, but there's more to it than that. While marble is most often used for kitchen countertop fabrication and installation, as well as for large monuments and museums, it has a vastly complex history. Marble has been used throughout the centuries, for everything from works of art, pyramid decoration and, of course, today's marble countertops.

The stone we call marble is created through the metamorphosis of limestone or dolostone, and is made of calcite. Marble comes to exist from rare contact with those sedimentary carbonate rocks, which causes the rock to completely re-crystallize into an interlocking mosaic of calcite, aragonite and/or dolomite crystals. The temperatures and pressures that are necessary for marble to be formed usually destroy any fossils and sediment that were in the original rock. This means the material that people use for kitchen countertop fabrication and installation will be as clean and solid as possible.

Other than marble countertops, the material is also very often used for sculptures. The word marble that we use today typically refers to pure white marble, which comes from the purest limestone. There are other colors of marble that people use for sculptures and kitchen countertops, though. Other colors of marble usually come about due to minerals that have been caught in the stone, such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides or chert. Green marble usually comes about because of serpentine in the rock, which results from limestone that was high in magnesium content or dolostone with silica impurities.

Marble without any color is made of the purest calcium carbonate, which is most popular for kitchen countertop fabrication and installation. The clear marble is also popular for sculptures. The ancient Greeks were some of the first people to use marble for sculpture and other purposes, and so the name of the stone is also derived from ancient Greek language. The word ?marble? comes from the Greek ?marmaros,? which means ?shining stone.? This is also the origin for the English word ?marmoreal? which means ?marble-like.?

The use of marble for so many ancient Greek and Roman works of art has made the stone somewhat of a symbol for classic design and high fashion. This is why marble countertops are still associated with upper class homes, though marble is often used sparingly throughout many more modest home designs. In folklore, marble is also often associated with the astrological sign of Gemini and pure white marble is an emblem of purity. It is also an emblem of immortality, and an insurer of success in education. For all these reasons, marble is a material that has a reputation for strength, purity, beauty, longevity and style.