The biblical Ararat is thought be a variation of Urartu, an ancient term for the region north of ancient Assyria which encompasses the Armenian plateau. According to Josephus, the Armenians in the 1st century showed the remains of Noah's ark at a place called αποβατηριον Place of Descent (, Nakhichevan, Ptolemy's Ναξουανα), about 60 miles southeast of the summit of Mount Ararat (ca. ). The mountains of Ararat in Genesis have become identified in later (medieval) Christian tradition with the peak now known as Mount Ararat itself, a volcanic massif in Turkey and known in Turkish as Agri Dagh (Ağrı Dağı).