Dying everyday items purple was very difficult and expensive back in the time of the Phoenicians (1500-500 B.C). About 12,000 murexes were needed to make one garment about the size of a Roman Toga. To dye 1,000 lbs. of wool, 111 lbs. of the murexes were required. A murex was a sea creature like a snail that lived in a big shell.

Because only kings and queens could afford this expense, purple was considered a royal color. In fact, the dye was named "Royal Purple" for this reason.

No one really knows how people discovered this dye. One legend says that Helen of Troy discovered this purple dye when she was walking her dog by the beach. Evidently her dog was chewing on a murex and it turned his mouth purple.

The murexes were not at all easy to obtain. Since the Mediterranean Sea has no tide, the murexes could not simply wash up onto shore. The Phoenicians had to purposefully go out into deep water to retrieve the murexes. One drop of liquid was extracted from the gland of each murex. The extracted liquid changed from a white color to a yellowish-green color, and then, because of the exposure to the air, turned the final color, purple.

Different murex produce different vivid colors of dye including red, blue and black.

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