In this paper, we study the influence of the Fe2O3 content on the Raman spectra of sapphires by confocal micro Raman spectroscopy and Electron Probe Micro Analysis (EPMA) on a wide variety of sapphire samples collected from 18 different mining regions. Almost all of the samples have a basaltic origin, which is often characterized by a high Fe2O3 content. The Raman peak positions of the two peaks at 418.3 cm−1 and 577.7 cm−1 shift in the investigated area linearly with the Fe2O3 content. This correlation can be applied in, for example, estimating the Fe2O3 content in sapphire or corundum in general and contributes in distinguishing sapphires from different origins. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.