The 19th-century language scholar Johann Heinrich Hübschmann wrote that the name Nakhichavan in Armenian literally means the place of descent, a Biblical reference to the descent of Noah's Ark on the adjacent Mount Ararat. Armenian tradition says that Nakhchivan was founded by Noah. First century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus also wrote about Nakhichevan, saying that its original name Αποβατηριον, or Place of Descent, is the proper rendering of the Armenian name of this very city. Hübschmann noted, however, that it was not known by that name in antiquity, and that the present-day name evolved to Nakhchivan from Naxčawan. The prefix Naxč derives from Naxič or Naxuč (probably a personal name) and awan (the modern transcription of Hübschmann's avan) is Armenian for place, town.