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The City of Tiles, historic centre of Puebla.

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Puebla was built by the Spaniards in the 16th century and is located in highland wilderness,

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some 2,100 metres above sea level.

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This is one of the town's churches.

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The wall is decorated with a huge number of tiles.

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They're known as Talavera tiles and are a nostalgic reminder of the settlers' homeland.

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This is a long-established tile workshop in the town's historic centre.

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Spanish people found that Puebla had soil suited for making ceramic tiles.

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They started to produce tiles and ceramics using techniques brought from Talavera de la Reina,

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a pottery production centre in central Spain.

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Puebla also had an abundance of mineral ores which were used to make green and purple pigment,

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a characteristic of Talavera pottery.

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Indigenous people in the area already knew how to make urbanware,

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but Spanish potters taught them how to glaze pottery.

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Most of the settlers who came to Puebla were from southern Spain,

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a region which remained under Muslim control until the end of the 15th century.

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The use of tiles shows how Islamic architecture influenced the settlers.

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This building was an archbishop's residence.

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Flowers symbolise life in Mexico and are typically used in many Talavera pottery designs in Puebla.

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Tiles imported from the Islamic world were used to decorate walls and floors of Spanish houses

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from the 13th century onwards.

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This hotel shows the particular taste of its owner.

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Its roof is decorated with mosaic tiles.

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Running patterns of plants and flowers in Arabic style decorate the walls inside the hotel.

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This is the courtyard of the former convent of Santa Rosa.

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The figure portrayed in flowers in bloom looks like a nun.

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The walls and ceiling are completely covered in tiles in the convent kitchen.

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The oven and sink are also tiled.

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People wished to recreate the beauty of their hometowns,

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and in the process brought Islamic culture all the way to Mexico.