diff --git a/bindings/python/Makefile b/bindings/python/Makefile
index d55523af..940cd5bb 100644
--- a/bindings/python/Makefile
+++ b/bindings/python/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 default: build
 
 .PHONY:
-edlib:
+edlib: $(shell find ../../edlib)
 	# create a clean (maybe updated) copy of edlib src
 	rm -rf edlib && cp -r ../../edlib .
 
diff --git a/bindings/python/edlib.pyx b/bindings/python/edlib.pyx
index a4de39b0..440841ba 100644
--- a/bindings/python/edlib.pyx
+++ b/bindings/python/edlib.pyx
@@ -32,30 +32,27 @@ def _map_to_bytes(query, target, additional_equalities):
         query_bytes = _map_ascii_string(query)
         target_bytes = _map_ascii_string(target)
     except NeedsAlphabetMapping:
-        # Map non-ascii symbols into an ASCII alphabet so it can be used
-        # in the C++ code
-        query_vals = set(query)
-        target_vals = set(target)
-        input_mapping = {
-            c: chr(idx)
-            for idx, c in enumerate(query_vals.union(target_vals))
-        }
-        if len(input_mapping) > 256:
+        # Map elements of alphabet to chars from 0 up to 255, so that Edlib can work with them,
+        # since C++ Edlib needs chars.
+        alphabet = set(query).union(set(target))
+        if len(alphabet) > 256:
             raise ValueError(
                 "query and target combined have more than 256 unique values, "
                 "this is not supported.")
-        map_seq = lambda seq: ''.join(input_mapping[x] for x in seq).encode('ascii')
+        alphabet_to_byte_mapping = {
+            c: idx.to_bytes(1, byteorder='big') for idx, c in enumerate(alphabet)
+        }
+        map_seq = lambda seq: b''.join(alphabet_to_byte_mapping[c] for c in seq)
         query_bytes = map_seq(query)
         target_bytes = map_seq(target)
         if additional_equalities is not None:
             additional_equalities = [
-                (input_mapping[a], input_mapping[b])
+                (alphabet_to_byte_mapping[a].decode('utf-8'), alphabet_to_byte_mapping[b].decode('utf-8'))
                 for a, b in additional_equalities
-                if a in input_mapping and b in input_mapping]
+                if a in alphabet_to_byte_mapping and b in alphabet_to_byte_mapping]
     return query_bytes, target_bytes, additional_equalities
 
 
-
 def align(query, target, mode="NW", task="distance", k=-1, additionalEqualities=None):
     """ Align query with target using edit distance.
     @param {str or bytes or iterable of hashable objects} query, combined with target must have no more
diff --git a/bindings/python/test.py b/bindings/python/test.py
index 558f8d86..cdba91e9 100644
--- a/bindings/python/test.py
+++ b/bindings/python/test.py
@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@
 result = edlib.align("telephone", "", mode="SHW")
 testFailed = testFailed or (not (result and result["editDistance"] == 9))
 
+# Unicode characters
+result = edlib.align("ты милая", "ты гений")
+testFailed = testFailed or (not (result and result["editDistance"] == 5 and result["alphabetLength"] == 12))
+
+# Long alphabet.
+long_alphabet = ''.join([chr(idx) for idx in range(1, 257)])
+long_seq1 = long_alphabet * 3
+long_seq2 = long_alphabet + long_alphabet[::-1] + long_alphabet
+result = edlib.align(long_seq1, long_seq2)
+testFailed = testFailed or (not (result and result["editDistance"] == 256))
+
 if testFailed:
     print("Some of the tests failed!")
 else:
diff --git a/edlib/src/edlib.cpp b/edlib/src/edlib.cpp
index e843501a..e19f1194 100644
--- a/edlib/src/edlib.cpp
+++ b/edlib/src/edlib.cpp
@@ -361,7 +361,7 @@ static inline Word* buildPeq(const int alphabetLength,
     Word* Peq = new Word[(alphabetLength + 1) * maxNumBlocks];
 
     // Build Peq (1 is match, 0 is mismatch). NOTE: last column is wildcard(symbol that matches anything) with just 1s
-    for (unsigned char symbol = 0; symbol <= alphabetLength; symbol++) {
+    for (int symbol = 0; symbol <= alphabetLength; symbol++) {
         for (int b = 0; b < maxNumBlocks; b++) {
             if (symbol < alphabetLength) {
                 Peq[symbol * maxNumBlocks + b] = 0;