What is "alta"

Älta is a locality situated in Nacka Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 9,989 inhabitants in 2010.

Alta was a Greek manufacturer of light and heavier three-wheeler trucks, motorcycles and passenger cars. Production of motorcycles and three-wheeler trucks with Sachs 50cc engines started in its first factory in Athens in 1962. The 50S motorcycle model was known for its reliability (some survive to date in good working condition). In 1967 it designed and developed model A700, a heavier three-wheel truck with 2-cylinder BMW 35 hp engine and a payload of 800 kg. The truck, featuring a pleasant design and high reliability became one of the most successful vehicles of its kind in Greece. In 1968 Alta introduced a three-wheel passenger car, model A200 (three wheelers were classified differently according to Greek law). Powered by a Heinkel 200cc engine, the car was based on the German Fuldamobil (also produced by Attica in Greece under licence), but with Alta's own body design. The company moved production to a new, larger factory in Elefsis where it operated until 1978.

Image:ALTA 50S.jpg|Alta 50S motorcycle (1962) Image:ALTA A700.jpg|Alta A700 truck (1967) Image:ALTA A200.jpg| Alta A200 car (1968)

Alta (2004) is the second book (the first is Joust) in the Dragon Jousters tetralogy by Mercedes Lackey. It is set in a fictionalized version of the pre-Pharaonic Lower Kingdom of Egypt. Lackey stated on her website that she intended Alta to be a fusion of predynastic Lower Egypt and Atlantis, with more emphasis on the former than the latter. The Atlantis connection is not readily apparent in Alta, but becomes a bit more obvious towards the end of the sequel, Sanctuary.

Alta Gerrey (born 1942, Reno, Nevada) is a British-American poet, prose writer, and publisher, best known as the founder of the feminist press Shameless Hussy Press and editor of the Shameless Hussy Review. Her 1980 collection The Shameless Hussy won the American Book Award in 1981.

Alta or Mahawar or Rose Bengal is a red dye which women in India (specially Rajput, Bengali and Oriya women in Eastern India) or Bangladesh apply with cotton on the border of their feet during marriages and religious festivals. During Durga Puja many Bengali women put Alta on their feet.

In certain areas of India there is a tradition that after the wedding ceremony, when the bride enters her in-laws house for the first time, she steps in a plate of Alta before crossing the threshold with her right foot, leaving red footsteps behind her.

Alta was originally produced from lac though later it was replaced with synthetic dyes. The Oriya lexicon 'Purnachandra Bhashakosha' (1930s) describes how this lac-dye was prepared. For Hindus this has been a sacred dye known in Sanskrit as lakshya rasa.

In 2000, Bikash Rath, a researcher from Odisha, India, noticed that the traditional lac artisans of his state could not even recall that alta was actually prepared from lac. In 2010 he wrote to the Indian Institute of Natural Resins & Gums (IINRG, formerly known as Lac Research Institute), Namkum, Ranchi for standardization of the information available on natural alta making, so that the pure alta can be revived. Based on his request IINRG scientists have now developed two formulations for natural alta, the trials of which have been made at the Regional Centre for Development Cooperation, Bhubaneswar. Both IINRG and RCDC are now working for the promotion of the original alta.

Rath cautions against the misconception that every lac dye is alta, because alta is for the purpose of applying on human skin (and hence it needs a more careful formulation) whereas there can be other lac dyes for other purposes such as textile dyeing.

Alta is a town in Alta Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of the municipality and it is located on the southern end of the Altafjorden, at the mouth of the river Altaelva. There are several suburbs around the town. Kåfjord, Kvenvik, and Jiepmaluokta lie to the west; Øvre Alta and Tverrelvdalen lie to the south; and Rafsbotn lies to the east. The famous rock carvings at Alta lie just to the west of the town.

The town of Alta has three churches: the historic Alta Church in Bossekop, the relatively new Elvebakken Church in Elvebakken, and the Northern Lights Cathedral (the new "main" church for the municipality that was completed in 2013). Alta is also an educational centre in Finnmark county. Finnmark University College is based in Alta as well as the local primary and secondary schools, including Alta videregående skole. Alta District Court is based in the town, serving the municipalities of Loppa and Alta. Alta IF is the main sports team for the town.