Purple has been the color signifying royalty since time immemorial. The reason being that the purple dye was one of the rarest and most expensive to procure and process. But even among the purple hues, one sits atop them all, the Tyrian Purple or also called, shellfish purple.
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The manufacture of Tyrian purple dyes had been the central industry of ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire. The dye was used on the robes of royalty, cardinals, and religious manuscripts. Originating from the ancient Phoenicians, neighboring regions of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia had all coveted the precious dye.
Though it is generally known to come from sea snails, the exact process and recipe had been lost after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. The dyeing industry had been very elusive and protective over their recipes that nobody had written records about them. Pliny perhaps comes closest to documenting how the dye was made, but it’s no easy task.
First of all, extracting the mucous from the sea snail itself required laborious work and thousands upon thousands of snails. Then, to get the color just right, one would need to have the right conditions to turn the chemicals in the mucous into the purple dye.
However, one man who had a stroke of luck and serendipity, incidentally rediscovered Tyrian purple. His name is Mohammed Ghassen Nouira, and for 16 years, he had obsessed over the process of making Tyrian purple dyes. But perhaps he has finally found the right formula. Read more about it on BBC.
(Image credit: Mohammed Ghassen Nouira)
Source: neatorama