In the hilly terrain of southern China, ancient ceramicists designed a special type of kiln that worked with the sloping landscape. These Dragon Kilns, which date back 2,000 to 3,000 years, ran up a hill in a long, snakelike form.

Image: Shanghai Museum

Image: Wuxi Daily

Not only have some of these structures survived for centuries, but some are still in use today, like this Qianshu Dragon Kiln in Jiangsu.

Image: China Daily

Dragon Kilns were built all the way into the 20th century. Here's a diagram of the Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln, built in 1940 in Singapore:

Image: ScotExploring

The fire was typically stoked at the bottom...

...although some designs have additional fires burning along the sides.

Heat would rise to fill the structure, with a chimney placed at the high end. Built dozens of meters long, these could fit tens of thousands of pieces within them, resting on stepped platforms, for a mass firing.

Image: Zhangzhugang

Image: Zhangzhugang

The structures didn't always survive. Here's the excavated floor of a 40-meter-long dragon kiln in Hangzhou, which has been preserved with a new structure.

Image: G41rn8 - CC BY-SA 4.0

Here's video of the inside of the Qiangshu Dragon Kiln shown up top:

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