SAEDNEWS: The king of all colors, crafted by the ancient Phoenicians and later cherished by Roman emperors and Cleopatra. Yet the exact recipe for this hue was lost five centuries ago
According to the Society Desk at SaedNews, citing Faradid, Zaria Gorvett explored the story of Tyrian Purple—or royal purple—on a BBC program. Once the most valuable color on Earth, its recipe was lost nearly 500 years ago, in the 15th century.
This deep red-purple hue, resembling congealed blood with a hint of black, was not made like most ancient pigments—by crushing leaves, insects, or gemstones. Instead, it began with snail mucus, particularly from three species of sea snails in the Murex family. The result was not purple at first; it started out bright. As Maria Mello, a conservation science professor, explains: “The problem was that people didn’t write down the crucial tricks.”
Gorvett writes that the most detailed account of the process dates back to the first century AD, involving salting, fermenting, and cooking the snail’s mucous glands. What made this color so precious was the scarcity of the glands—creating just one gram of pigment required 10,000 snails.
The death knell for Tyrian Purple came in 1453, when the Romans were expelled from Constantinople, ending the city’s industrial production of the dye. Gorvett’s story extends into modern times, particularly 2007, when Mohamed Qasnen Nweira, walking along a Tunisian beach, encountered a deep red-purple liquid oozing from the cracked shell of a snail. Opening shells from other snails yielded nothing—until the next day. He then spent the next 16 years rediscovering the lost recipe for this legendary pigment.
