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Alashia

The location of the kingdom of Alashia is uncertain today, but was probably Cyprus, or the city of Enkomi in eastern Cyprus.

Its king was the author of some of the Amarna Letters, although it is difficult to determine during whose reign these letters were sent because he addresses the pharaoh as "The King of Egypt" without mentioning his name. The King of Alashia requested that Egypt not make any treaties with the Hittites and North Syrians. Otherwise his letters are generally complaints or excuses: he once complained that the price of a consignment of wood had been taken from Alashians by the Egyptians. Another time he requested that the property of one of his subjects, who had died in Egypt, be returned to Alashia, as the man's widow and child were still living there. Once he wrote to notify pharaoh that Nergal, god of pestilence, was raging in his land, thus reducing the amount of copper that would be sent to Egypt.