The Book of Mormon text has a number of narratives that geographic models should accommodate or explain. Key narratives include:
Mulekite/Phoenician connection. The Mulekites likely sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in a Phoenician ship.
- The Mulekites named their big river Sidon (Alma 2:15), the name of a major Phoenician port city along with Arwad, Byblos, and Tyre.
- The Phoenicians ca. 600 BC had formidable maritime experience and capability. They were much more advanced in this area than the Kingdom of Judah. See Philip Beale's two excellent books Sailing Close to the Wind Dorchester, England: Lulworth Press (2012) and Atlantic B.C. Dorchester, England: Lulworth Press (2022).
 |
| Philip Beale's Modern Replica of Phoenician Sailing Vessel |
Isolation.
- Mosiah I discovered the Mulekites whose language was unintelligible to the Nephites. At contact, both groups realized they came from Old World Jerusalem. Omni 1:14-17.
- Coriantumr, a Jaredite survivor, lived among the Mulekites for nine moons. He carved his history on a stela, but no one among the Mulekites could read it. Omni 1:20-22.
- Ammon and his reconnaissance party wandered for forty days in the wilderness Mosiah 7:4.
- Limhi's 43 explorers were lost in the wilderness for many days. Mosiah 8:8, Mosiah 21:25.
- The Lamanite army dispatched to intercept Limhi and his people were lost in the wilderness. Mosiah 22:15-16, Mosiah 23:30.
- Amaleki's brother returned from Zarahemla back to Nephi with the Zeniff colony and no word from the migrants ever reached Zarahemla. Omni 1:30, Mosiah 7:1.
- Captain Moroni on the northeast front was uninformed about Helaman's military activities on the southwest front. Alma 59:1-2.
- Many people who migrated to the land northward were never heard from again. Alma 63:8.
- Ca. 71 BC the Nephites achieved their territorial maximum Alma 50:23. Only 36 years later, Lamanites controlled 100% of the greater land of Zarahemla. Helaman 4:5.
- Helaman thought Nephite armies were too small to effectively hold their large territory. Alma 58:32.
- Limhi's 43 explorers thought they had found Zarahemla Mosiah 21:26 and King Limhi believed them for a few days until Ammon and his party arrived Mosiah 7:14.
- The term "pure water" appears only 2 times in the text. It is obvious what the fountain of pure water was in the place called Mormon - it was a spring of some kind. Mosiah 18:5. But how do you have an entire land of pure water as in Mosiah 23:4?
- What does it mean that the Nephites under Mormon fortified the city of Desolation and environs "with all our force?" Mormon 3:6. These fortifications were so well-engineered that had the Nephite armies just stayed home the Lamanites would never have prevailed. Mormon 4:4.
- The disastrous return of Zeniff and his followers from Zarahemla to Nephi is likely due to very different climates in the two places. Economic opportunity, kinship ties, access to good land, violence, and natural disasters are unlikely to have been major motives for the reverse migration. See point #12 in the blog article The Usumacinta/Sidon Correlation.
- Ammaron ca. AD 324 commanded Mormon to leave the Nephite repository in hill Shim Mormon 1:4. Ca. AD 375 Mormon removed the Nephite repository from hill Shim because the area was no longer secure Mormon 4:23. Ether 15:11 tells us that Mormon created a new Nephite repository in hill Ramah/Cumorah. A useful geographic model will shed light on Mormon's willful disobedience.
- There was a point along the west coast where the Nephites could successfully prevent superior Lamanite forces from overrunning the land Northward. Alma 22:32-34, Helaman 4:7.
