Nakhchivan may be synonymous with Noah, but in the 7,500 or so years since the prophet and his followers descended from Mount Ilandag (or nearby Mount Ararat, depending on whom you ask), their descendants have passed under Persian, Ottoman and Russian rule to form something of a majority Muslim melting pot. In recent decades, an ongoing land dispute with Armenia has remained one of post-Soviet Europe’s last “frozen conflicts”.David McArdle (BBC)