Nowadays, amid the storming development of high-tech devices such as smartphones or e-book readers, people seem to neglect the existence of certain inventions that date back thousands of years. One of those is the mirror.

People grew a desire to see themselves as they saw their reflections in the surface of water. Around the 600s BC, the first mirrors were made from natural materials such as polished stones. After a while, people started to use bronze, gold and silver to make mirrors. These metals were heavy, so mirrors had very modest sizes. Ruling-class people, especially ladies, used them as a fashionable accessory. Hardly did they go out without a mirror. In the 1st century, the first glass mirrors were invented by the Romans and were made bigger to allow people to look at the whole body. However, not everyone cherished the mirror. Some people were irritated to find themselves ugly looking at the mirror, and there were rumors that what they saw in the mirror were reflections of sins and demons.

Nowadays, despite technological advancement, mirrors still play important roles in various modern-day fields, such as surgery, transport, architecture and so on. In fact, mirrors are utilised in technology and have inspired the inventions of several devices such as cameras or satellites.