Tyrian Purple facts
While investigating facts about Tyrian Purple, I found out little known, but curios details like:
In ancient Rome 1 pound of Tyrian purple dye cost 3 pounds of gold because it took 10,000 shellfish to produce 1 gram of it.
Tyrian purple used to be worth it's weight in gold, and it took 250,000 snails to make one ounce of dye.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 6 of the best facts about Tyrian Purple I managed to collect.
-
When a German chemist tried to recreate a lavish ancient dye called "Tyrian purple," he had to use 12,000 mollusks to make enough to color a single handkerchief.
-
Tyrian Purple, a dye specially extracted from murex shellfish, used by ancient royals, cost around $19,000 per pound in 301 AD (when converted to present-day value).
-
Tyrian purple, a dye that comes from a sea snail of which it takes 12,000 snails to produce 1.4g of dye, and when Nero was emperor would have people executed for wearing the color
-
To get Tyrian Purple, you had to boil thousands of snails just to get a few grams of pure dye of it.
