Alabastra

ALABASTRA

ALABASTRA or ALABASTRON (Ἀλαβαστρὰ, Ἀλάβαστρων πόλις, Ptol. 4.5.59; Plin. Nat. 5.9. s. 11, 37.8. s. 32), a city of Egypt, whose site is differently stated by Pliny and Ptolemy. Pliny places it in Upper Egypt; Ptolemy in the Heptanomis. It would accordingly be either south or north of the Mons Alabastrites. It was doubtless connected with the alabaster quarries of that mountain. If Alabastra stood in the Heptanomis, it was an inland town, connected with the Nile by one of the many roads which pervade the region between that river and the Arabian hills.

[W.B.D]