NAKHICHEVAN, a Russian town, the administrative centre of the Nakhichevan S.S.R. in 39° 14' N., 24' E., on the Kish chai river and at the terminus of a short line linking it with the railway that runs north of the Araxes river and which is being prolonged to Baku (1928). The town is on a spur of the Kara bagh mountains at an altitude of 2,94o ft. Pop. (1926) 8,946, mainly Tatars and Armenians. It has an electric plant, motor driven flour mills and a leather factory. A little to the south-east of it, a branch railway goes to Tabriz. An ancient site on the Tiflis to Tabriz and Teheran road, the town had much transit trade, especially in salt, between Persia and the north in pre-railway days. Armenian tradition claims Noah as its founder, and a mound of earth as his grave. Ptolemy mentions it as Naxuana. The Persians sacked the town in the 4th century and it did not revive until the loth century. Alp Arslan, Sultan of the Seljuk Turks,
captured it in 1064 and the Mongols raided it in the 13th century. From this period onwards it was a bone of contention between Persians, Armenians and Turks. By the peace of Turkman-chai in 1828 it became Russian. The present houses have for the most part been quarried from ancient ruins. A gateway with a Persian inscription and the 12th century Tower of the Khans remain.
a town of Russia in the North Caucasian Area on the right bank of the Don, in 18' N., 45' E., 6 m. N.E. of Rostov-on-Don. Pop. (1926) 71,321. It shares in the trading prosperity of the latter town, and has smelting, rope and cloth works. It was founded in 178o by Armenian immigrants, and their descendants still form a large percentage of the population along the banks of the Don.