Ararat (Western Armenian pronunciation: "Ararad") is the Greek version of the Hebrew spelling (אֲרָרָט; RRṬ) of the name Urartu, a kingdom that existed in the Armenian Highlands in the 9th–6th centuries BC. German orientalist and Bible critic Wilhelm Gesenius speculated that the word "Ararat" came from the Sanskrit word "Arjanwartah", meaning "holy ground." Some Armenian historians, such as Ashot Melkonyan, link the origin of the word "Ararat" to the root of the endonym of the indigenous peoples of the Armenian Highland ("ar–"), including the Armenians. The mountain is known as Ararat in European languages, however, none of the native peoples have traditionally referred to the mountain by that name. In classical antiquity, particularly in Strabo's "Geographica", the peaks of Ararat were known in ancient Greek as Ἄβος ("Abos") and Νίβαρος ("Nibaros"). This mountain was not called by the name Ararat until the Middle Ages; early Armenian historians has considered Ararat to be in the area of Corduene.