It is important to know what an Oriental Rug is before you decide on buying one. There are some particular ways in which authentic Oriental rugs are made and should not be confused by other rugs as these are the best. One of the first vital points about real Oriental rugs is that it is made by hand. Any rug which is made in a machine is not a true Oriental rug.

There is another thing to remember that the rug does not have to be Oriental just because it is made by hand. There are some other rugs which are hand woven by the Native Americans in America which is known as the American Indian rugs or the Navajo rugs. The way it is made is different from the Oriental rugs.

There is another very obvious fact about Oriental rugs that the authentic Oriental rugs are manufactured in the Orient. Orient is a very general term but in most cases they are woven in Asia, Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe. In fact the design of the rug is different for different places. You will be able to understand this more once you compare photos as you search for them on the internet before you purchase one.

There is another type of rug which is called "tufted rugs" and is manufactured in some parts of Asia including India and China are a good alternative to the very costly Oriental rugs. They are also handmade but the style of weaving is not the same. The real Oriental rugs have a specific method of knotting and that is not found in the Tufted rugs. This is the reason the cost of Tufted rugs is much less compared to true Oriental rugs. In fact you will just have to spend $700 for a twelve by nine foot piece of a tufted rug, which would require $1,500 for Oriental rug. They both look very similar but the resale value of the Oriental rug is much higher. The quality is very good and the Oriental rug will stay with you for long.

One of the main details of Oriental rugs involves the way they are weaved. Some handmade Asian rugs, like the tufted rugs made in parts of China and India, look almost identical to Oriental rugs but lack the primary method of weaving: the individual hand-tied knots that are characteristic of the rugs. This knotting is what makes Oriental rugs so expensive and durable. While a tufted rug looks like an Oriental rug, it's only about half as valuable and depreciates in value much faster.