There is a rumour that the first tarot decks originated in Ancient Egypt. While it's possible cards for diversion and/or divination may have existed back then, I've seen no evidence of the existence of an actual tarot structure deck. For those not in the know: a tarot deck contains 78 cards, and is broken into two main sections:

	Major Arcana
	Minor Arcana

The Minor Arcana consists of four suits numbered Ace to 10, each with an additional four court cards. They usually pertain to interaction with others and conflicts within. The suits themselves take into consideration the following correspondences:

According to a book called "The Art of the Tarot," the earliest known set of tarot cards was given to Queen Isabella of France by an officer stationed in Italy. Although the key imagery and usage was to change in time, the basic structure of 77 cards broken down into two parts remain consistent (one might assume a 78th card - presumably 0 for major arcana key fool - was added later). The game most often played with them closely resembled Bridge.

Over the centuries, tarot evolved as it spread throughout Italy, France, and Switzerland. This was further hastened by the progressive development of printing techniques.