Lime as a mortar was discovered and used by man for as long as we know.

Perhaps ancient occupants of Earth used limestone rock to protect their

fireplaces. Fire heated the rocks and the first burnt lime was created. It then
rained and the lime slaked into calcium hydroxide, which reacted with the ashes
and sand around the fireplace creating the first ancient mortar
It was discovered that limestone, when burnt and combined with water, produced
a material that would harden with age.

The earliest documented use of lime as a construction material was

approximately 4000 BC when it was used in Egypt for plastering the pyramids.

As human technology advanced, it led to the creation of traditional lime kilns.

Kilns are thermally insulated chambers or in simpler terms a type of oven, that
produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening,
drying, or chemical changes. A lime kiln is used to produce quicklime through the
calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate). This reaction takes place at 900 °C
but a temperature around 1000 °C is usually used to make the reaction proceed
quickly. More modern iterations are indoor tower chambers where limestone can
continuously be heated and collected.

Today, the lime industry makes use of modern and best-available technologies to
limit energy requirements, meet strict emission regulations and allow multiple
quality requirements from various markets to be met.
There are two basic types of lime kilns; flare kilns and draw or running kilns. The
two types of kilns have similar construction, generally a broad chimney often set
on the side of a hill. The kiln is loaded from the top (the hillside) land fired from
the bottom, from where the lime is also removed. Flare kilns are loaded with a
single charge of limestone. First, a vault of limestone blocks is built over the
furnace, above which the rest of the limestone is stacked. The fire is lit and kept
stoked for several days until all the limestone has been calcined. The kiln is then
unloaded, the lime sent to the slaking pits, and the process repeated with the next
batch of limestone. Determining the correct temperature in the kiln is an art
rather than a science, and it depends on the limestone size as well as the type of
kiln and type of fuel used.