A popular but fanciful tale referring to the maroon colour and the similarity to the red Bahrain flag, is that purple is what becomes of red fading in the Gulf sun.[1] The legend goes that Qatar's flag used to be red, and that a new type of dye was used for the original flags. However after being left in the sun, the colour changed to maroon, which was then regarded to be a more beautiful colour (by coincidence). That is also why this specific shade of maroon is called "Qatar Red".