<P> In the Belfast Library there is the mummy of "Kaboolie,' the daughter of a priest of Ammon, who died 2,500 years ago . The linen on this mummy is also in a perfect state of preservation . When the tomb of Tutankhamen was opened, the linen curtains were found to be intact . </P> <P> The earliest records of an established linen industry are 4,000 years old, from Egypt . The earliest written documentation of a linen industry comes from the Linear B tablets of Pylos, Greece, where linen is depicted as an ideogram and also written as "li - no" (Greek: λίνον, linon), and the female linen workers are cataloged as "li - ne - ya" (λίνεια, lineia). </P> <P> The Phoenicians, who, with their merchant fleet, opened up new channels of commerce to the peoples of the Mediterranean, and developed the tin mines of Cornwall, introduced flax growing and the making of linen into Ireland before the common era . It is not until the twelfth century that we can find records of a definite attempt to systematize flax production . </P> <P> When the Edict of Nantes was revoked, in 1685, many of the Huguenots who fled France settled in the British Isles, and amongst them was Louis Crommelin, who settled in the town of Lisburn, about ten miles from Belfast . Belfast itself is perhaps the most famous linen producing center throughout history; during the Victorian era the majority of the world's linen was produced in the city which gained it the name Linenopolis . </P>

Where does linen come from and how is it made