Ammonihah Noah & Sidom all East of Sidon

On Thursday, August 2, 2012 I had a lengthy conversation with John L. Sorenson following his excellent presentation at the FAIR Conference about his forthcoming book, Mormon's Codex. I promised to send him an article demonstrating from the Book of Mormon that the associated Nephite polities Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom were all east of Sidon, not west of the river as most students of the text have assumed for more than 100 years. This is that article in PDF format: Ammonihah Noah & Sidom all East of Sidon. Since many browser-based PDF viewers lack functionality, you may wish to click on File and Download to read the PDF in a native viewer on your local machine.
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Some of this material was presented at the 10th Annual BMAF Lands of the Book of Mormon Conference held at the Salt Lake Sheraton on Saturday, October 20, 2012. You can view that presentation in this YouTube video filmed and edited by Robert Starling. The first 13 minutes of the video deal with the Ammonihah East of Sidon issue. The final 47 minutes of the video show John W. (Jack) Welch and me presenting a history of Book of Mormon Studies in the 20th Century.
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My intent with this material is to be provocative. I believe the Book of Mormon deserves to be taken seriously by much larger audiences worldwide. Demonstrating a verifiable New World setting after 182 years (1830 - 2012) would go a long way toward establishing the kind of credibility that would invite global interest in the book. Book of Mormon geography has been a fringe topic within LDS culture for generations, mired in ambiguity which has bred controversy. With the confluence of Royal Skousen's critical text, detailed historical-contextual exegesis from scholars such as Grant Hardy, and the unprecedented power and accessibility of Google Earth, significant progress toward a viable consensus map now seems possible. This article is an attempt to move the dial in that direction.
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Ammonihah, Noah & Sidom all East of Sidon
For well over a century, almost all Book of Mormon geography models have located the associated Nephite polities Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom west of river Sidon. Here are a few examples, beginning with Jeremy Skidmore's artistic representation.

Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom, west of river Sidon, outlined in red

Joel Hardy originated this handy block diagram. Notice that he posits two cities of Aaron, one near Ammonihah and another east of the river near Nephihah and Moroni.

Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom, west of river Sidon, outlined in red

This useful image came from a presentation Steve Carr gave in 2008 at the 6th Annual BMAF Lands of the Book of Mormon Conference in Salt Lake City.

Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom, west of Sidon, outlined in red

John L. Sorenson's highly influential internal map has received wide distribution.

Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom, west of Sidon, outlined in red

P. Douglas Kiester is a dedicated student of the text with many innovative ideas. His Sidon is in northwestern Colombia just south of Panama.

Ammonihah, west of Sidon, outlined in red

The late Daniel H. Ludlow first created this internal map. Versions of it have been widely published in Church Educational System (CES) manuals.

Ammonihah, Noah and Sidom, west of Sidon, outlined in red

Joseph L. Allen is the dean of Book of Mormon tour guides. He and his son, Blake, published this map in 2008. Their Sidon is the Grijalva River in southern Mexico.

Ammonihah, west of Sidon, outlined in red

We could continue multiplying examples, but you get the idea.

The Church in Zarahemla

We begin with an interesting research question: Could we locate the seven churches Alma₁ founded in the greater land of Zarahemla Mosiah 25:23 ca. 120 B.C.? Terms of  interest in the text include variations of:

• baptize
• church
• establish
• ordain
• order
• people of God
• priests and teachers
• regulate

Alma₁ founded a church in the wilderness of Mormon near the local land of Nephi ca. 147 B.C. Mosiah 18:17, Mosiah 23:16 when he was about 26 years old. We derive his age by calculating backward from Mosiah 29:45. 27 years later, ca. 120 B.C., Alma₁ and his flock of several hundred Mosiah 18:35 arrived in the local land of Zarahemla Mosiah 24:25 where King Mosiah₂ immediately recognized Alma's priesthood and moral authority Mosiah 25:14. Soon, Alma₁ had founded seven churches throughout the greater land of Zarahemla Mosiah 25:23.

Had the church existed in the greater land of Zarahemla before Alma₁ arrived ca. 120 B.C.? Yes. King Benjamin called priests to teach the gospel Mosiah 6:3 and Ammon at the court of King Limhi knew he held priesthood authority to baptize although he felt personally unworthy to exercise it Mosiah 21:33. But, Alma₁ was such a towering spiritual figure that King Mosiah₂ entrusted him with ecclesiastical affairs Mosiah 26:8 as the senior high priest Mosiah 26:7 throughout the greater land of Zarahemla.

How large were the church congregations Alma₁ established? The text does not say, but we have some parameters to consider:

• As a young church leader in the land of Mormon, Alma₁ consecrated one priest for every fifty congregants Mosiah 18:18. Multiple priests and teachers were ordained for each church unit Mosiah 25:19 in Zarahemla. So, a few hundred believers was probably the minimum number required to plant a new church.
• Another name for churches was "bodies" Mosiah 25:21. The text explicitly says the church bodies in Alma's day were large Mosiah 25:15.
• One criterion for dividing people into a new church body was simply the number of people who could gather in one place and listen to a speaker together Mosiah 25:20. This implies an upper limit of several thousand members per congregation.
• In the great awakening that followed the Amlicite war, about 3,500 people joined the church throughout the greater land of Zarahemla in one year Alma 4:5. 

We know that Alma₁ regulated the affairs of the church Mosiah 26:37 supported by an able lay ministry Mosiah 27:5. During his 29 year tenure as the presiding high priest in the greater land of Zarahemla, many people were baptized Mosiah 26:37, some of them by Alma₁ himself Mosiah 25:18. The aged leader ordained his son, Alma_2 , to succeed him as high priest over the church Mosiah 29:42 and passed away ca. 91 B.C. at age 82 Mosiah 29:45. The text is silent about Alma's journeys on the preaching circuit or specifics about any individual church. We do know that the church of God was generally established throughout all the lands subject to King Mosiah₂ Mosiah 25:19, Mosiah 27:35. So, where were these lands and churches?

Fortunately, Alma₂ was one of the principal Nephite record keepers and we have detailed information about his life and ministry. Soon after Alma₂ was ordained high priest by his father and given charge over all the affairs of the church, he was also appointed chief judge by the voice of the people Mosiah 29:42. He occupied this dual role for approximately eight years from ca. 91 B.C. to ca. 83 B.C. Alma 4:18. During those years, he presided over capital cases Alma 1:14, led the Nephite armies in battle Alma 2:16, and baptized many in the waters of Sidon Alma 4:4. Then, in the ninth year of the reign of the judges, Alma₂ turned the chief judgeship over to Nephihah Alma 4:20 and began his famous missionary journeys bearing pure testimony Alma 4:19.

Alma₂ taught and ordained priests and teachers to preside and watch over the church that was previously established in the city of Zarahemla Alma 6:1. So, we know that one of the seven churches founded by Alma₁ was in the capital city of Zarahemla. Alma 5:1-2 implies that there were other churches in the local land of Zarahemla in addition to the one in the principal city. Analyzing ancient settlement pattern data in our proposed local land of Zarahemla, three densely populated regions stand out - the Emiliano Zapata area which we correlate with the city of Zarahemla, the Balancan area, and the Palenque area. These regions are shown as white circles (average radius 12.5 kilometers) in the map below.

3 areas with large populations anciently in our proposed
local land of Zarahemla

We propose that three of Alma's seven churches were in the local land of Zarahemla, roughly corresponding to the locations indicated in the map above.

Alma₂ then crossed the river and taught and established the order of the church in the land of Gideon as he had previously done in Zarahemla Alma 8:1. The church in Gideon, though, was already established before Alma's arrival Alma 6:8. In fact, Alma₂ apologized to the good people of Gideon - since becoming high priest over eight years ago, he had never before communicated with them face to face Alma 7:1. From this we learn that one of the seven churches founded by Alma₁ was in the land of Gideon.

One of Alma's seven churches was in Gideon

Next on Alma's itinerary was the land of Melek west of the river. Alma₂ taught and baptized Alma 8:4-5 in Melek as he had previously done in Zarahemla. This verbiage indicates he was working within an existing church organization as a visiting authority with convening power rather than calling leaders and planting a new church. So, another of Alma's seven churches was in the land of Melek.

Proposed land of Melek west of Sidon, another of
Alma's original seven churches

After Melek, Alma₂ ventured into hostile territory in apostate Ammonihah three day's north of Melek Alma 8:6. The church of Nehor, later led by Amlici, was headquartered in Ammonihah Alma 14:16-18, Alma 15:15, Alma 16:11. Nevertheless, the text makes it clear that prior to Nehor and Amlici the church of God had been established in Ammonihah.

• Nehor's preaching, particularly successful in Ammonihah, disparaged the true church Alma 1:3
• Nehor preached against the prevailing order of lay ministry among priests & teachers Alma 1:3
• Alma's original intent in Ammonihah was to teach and baptize just as he had done in Zarahemla and Melek Alma 8:8-10
• Amulek was a Nephite living in predominantly Amlicite Ammonihah Alma 8:20. Discussing events five years earlier, Mormon emphasized the contemporary meaning of the term "Nephite" in the post-Amlicite war era Alma 3:11. Thus, Amulek was a believer, a member of the church of God, albeit one who had backslid during much of his adult life Alma 10:5-6. Alma₂ did not have to baptize or ordain his missionary companion.
• Even though the Amlicites held a deep-seated aversion to the Nephite scriptures Alma 14:8, copies were widely available among the people of Ammonihah Alma 14:1.

Therefore, we suggest that one of Alma's seven original churches was in the land of Ammonihah. 

Proposed land of Ammonihah where the true church once existed

The seventh church we believe was probably in the land of Minon south of and upstream from the local land of Zarahemla, although nothing in the text explicitly indicates this. The only other candidates might be the lands of Noah or less likely, Manti, or the city of Aaron, all attested in the text by ca. 82 B.C. By the time of  Alma₂ and the four sons of Mosiah₂, Manti was well-established along the north south Zarahemla to Nephi corridor Alma 16:7, and eventually Alma₂ attempted to travel there Alma 17:1. In the ca. 120 B.C. time frame, though, when Alma₁ founded the seven churches, people were still getting lost trying to travel between Nephi and Zarahemla and vice versa (see the blog article "Water Fight on the River - Round Five"). It is not likely that Manti was part of the Nephite nation at that early date. Noah and Aaron are less likely than Minon simply because they are further away from the local land of Zarahemla. When Alma₂ got to the land of Sidom, ca. 81 B.C., he founded the church there Alma 15:13. Sidom was distant enough from the Nephite culture core it had only recently been brought into Zarahemla's orbit. The same was probably true for Noah and Aaron. So, we propose that one of Alma's seven churches was in the land of Minon.

Proposed seven churches in the greater land of Zarahemla

Mosiah 27:2 says that the seven churches founded by Alma₁ were in the "land round about" the city of Zarahemla. Mosiah 27:32 adds that they were "round about through all the land". The red line shows our interpretation of this circularity.

Seven churches in the land round about Zarahemla

How far distant were the seven church bodies from each other? In our correlation above, the red circle has a radius of 65 kilometers. The text says Alma's most arduous journey Alma 8:3 on this circuit was the one from the city of Zarahemla to Melek, shown in magenta on the map below. The term "take journey" in Nephite parlance implies long, tough travel.

Proposed journey from the city of Zarahemla to the land of Melek

The Zarahemla to Melek journey plotted above runs for 135 air (straight-line) kilometers which would require about 9 day's travel according to our standard metric (see the blog article "Land Southward Travel Times"). Highest elevation en route: 388 meters.

The text evidences an all too human pattern of societal upheaval followed by resurgent interest in religion. Some examples:

• In Mosiah 25, ca. 120 B.C., Nephite society in the greater land of Zarahemla was fundamentally transformed with the influx of Alma's and King Limhi's peoples. King Mosiah₂ authorized Alma₁ to establish churches throughout all the land Mosiah 25:19.
• In Alma 4, ca. 86 B.C., the Nephites were suffering because of the severe devastation brought on by the Amlicite war Alma 4:2-3. They began to establish the church more fully and many were baptized Alma 4:4.
• In Alma 45, ca. 73 B.C., the war with Zerahemnah caused massive casualties Alma 44:21 and major disruptions in the church Alma 45:21. Helaman led a nationwide renewal throughout the church organization Alma 45:22.
• In Alma 62, ca. 57 B.C., following the lengthy war with Amalickiah/Ammoron, the church was in disarray. Once again, Helaman led a resurgence throughout all the land Alma 62:44-46.

Sidon East then West

An interesting textual shift occurs at Alma 50:11, a passage describing events in the Nephite golden age ca. 72 - 71 B.C. Alma 50:23. Captain Moroni's ingenious fortifications worked so well at Noah (1,000+ Lamanites killed in action, 0 Nephites slain Alma 49:23) that the Nephites were busy erecting similar moats, walls & palisades around all of their settlements Alma 50:1. Nephite military forces cleared Lamanites from the east wilderness and drove them south of the east-west line that separated the greater land of Zarahemla on the north from the greater land of Nephi on the south Alma 50:7. Nephite settlers were brought in from the heavily populated local land of Zarahemla and environs to occupy the newly vacated eastern lands Alma 50:9. With the founding of the city of Moroni ca. 72 B.C. Alma 50:13 in the extreme south eastern corner of the greater land of Zarahemla, the process of colonizing the east coast that was well underway ca. 77 B.C. in the land of Jershon Alma 27:22 was nearing completion. Up to this point in the text, all of the action in the greater land of Zarahemla had been in the central riverine corridor and points east (all references to the west sea were in the lands of Bountiful and Desolation). Alma 50:11 marks an important turning point when the west began its ascendancy in Nephite affairs.

The word series "north, south, east, west" was formulaic among the Nephites to mean omni directional 2 Nephi 29:11, Mosiah 27:6, Helaman 1:31. The terms "east" and "west" as a duo are coupled 13 times in the text. The order is always east to west from Alma 22:27 through Alma 50:11. Then from Alma 50:34 to 3 Nephi 1:17 the order reverses and is always expressed west to east. To wit:
Alma 22:27        ca. 90 B.C.  sea on the east and on the west
Alma 22:27        ca. 90 B.C.  sea east even to the sea west
Alma 22:27        ca. 90 B.C.  from the east towards the west
Alma 22:29        ca. 90 B.C.  from the east to the west
Alma 22:32        ca. 90 B.C.  from the east to the west sea
Alma 22:33        ca. 90 B.C.  from the east unto the west sea
Alma 50:8          ca. 72 B.C.  from the east sea to the west
Alma 50:11        ca. 72 B.C.  in the east wilderness, yea, and also on the west
-- Textual turning point --
Alma 50:34        ca. 68 B.C.  on the west and on the east
Helaman 3:8       ca. 46 B.C.  from the sea west to the sea east
Helaman 4:7       ca. 35 B.C.  from the west sea, even unto the east
Helaman  11:20  ca. 16 B.C.  from the sea west to the sea east
3 Nephi 1:17       ca. A.D. 1    from the west to the east

What is going on here? The text is telling us that in the ca. 72 B.C. time frame, the Nephite nation, having settled lands from the river all the way to the east coast, changed its focus from an eastward orientation to a westward outlook as the land northward assumed a much greater role in Nephite affairs. We are seeing the first manifestation of a 1) Sidon 2) east then 3) west pattern.

This semantic shift is even more impressive when you realize that 5 of the 13 east, west couplets are describing features that are probably clustered within 30 kilometers of each other in the area along the west coast where the Sierra Madre reaches almost to the Pacific. Click to enlarge.

Cluster of proposed Nephite geographic referents along the west coast
near the modern boundary between Oaxaca and Chiapas 

The textual transition is clear when we analyze the east west narrow strip of wilderness and the line separating the Nephites in the greater land of Zarahemla on the north from the Lamanites in the greater land of Nephi on the south. In this map, the narrow strip of wilderness is shown in green and the Nephite Lamanite line along its northern (uphill) edge in red.

Narrow strip of wilderness (green) ran from the east sea to
the west sea with the head of Sidon roughly at its midpoint

Alma 22:27 first says that the northern boundary of the greater land of Nephi ran from the sea on the east to the sea on the west. It then says that the narrow strip of wilderness separating Nephites on the north from Lamanites on the south ran from the sea east to the sea west. Finally, it says that the narrow strip of wilderness ran from the east towards the west, passing by the head of the river Sidon with wilderness areas to its north. Alma 50:8 continues this same theme, adding that the eastern portion of the northern boundary of the greater land of Nephi was more rectilinear than curvilenear. In our correlation, this eastern portion of the boundary generally followed the Polochic/Dulce, roughly parallel to the Motagua.

Eastern portion of the narrow strip of wilderness running
in a straight course from the east sea to the west

In Alma 50:11, though, this eastward primacy suddenly changes. We learn that by ca. 72 B.C.:

• Nephite military forces for the first time drove Lamanites out of the wilderness west of the central Sidon corridor
• The Nephites began fortifying the east west dividing line - the northern part of the narrow strip of wilderness that separated the Nephites on the north from the Lamanites on the south
• for the first time, the narrow strip of wilderness was characterized as running from the west sea eastward to the head of Sidon rather than from the east sea westward
• the Nephites for the first time had now begun to inhabit not only the land Bountiful but also the land northward beyond Bountiful. Alma 46:17 ca. 73 B.C. confirms that the Nephites by this time had settled the land Bountiful. 

Going back 18 years to ca. 90 B.C., the text paints quite a different picture:

• While the greater land of Nephi extended westward to the west sea, the greater land of Zarahemla did not. The west wilderness, full of idle Lamanites living in tents, was explicitly west of the greater land of Zarahemla Alma 22:28. The land of Melek was in the central Sidon corridor west of the river with nothing but wilderness west of Melek Alma 8:3.
• While the Lamanites in the west wilderness were exploiting a Nephite settlement vacuum, the Lamanites in the east wilderness had been explicitly driven there by the Nephites' eastward expansion Alma 22:29.
• With the exception of their defensive garrison on the west coast Alma 22:33 the Nephites had not yet inhabited the land Bountiful Alma 22:29.  

These verses make the situation clear: by ca. 90 B.C. the Nephites in the greater land of Zarahemla had settled multiple lands along the central Sidon corridor including the land of Manti in the extreme south just north of the head of Sidon. They had established a defensive outpost in the land Bountiful along the west coast. And, they had begun expanding eastward, driving the Lamanites before them. The settlement of Jershon ca. 77 B.C. was a major milestone in this eastward movement. By ca. 72 B.C. the Nephites had expelled the Lamanites from the entire east wilderness area and were themselves establishing settlements along the east coast from the city of Bountiful on the north to the city of Moroni on the south. Having largely filled in their eastern lands, the Nephites ca. 72 B.C. began to finally turn their attention westward, driving the Lamanites out of the west wilderness and fortifying the east west narrow strip of wilderness line that separated the greater land of Zarahemla on the north from the greater land of Nephi on the south.

In the greater land of Zarahemla, the Nephites settled:

1. first, the river Sidon corridor beginning ca. 200 B.C.
2. second, the east with settlement well underway by ca. 90 B.C. The second wave of eastern expansion near the east sea was going strong with the establishment of the land of Jershon by ca. 77 B.C. By ca. 72 - 67 B.C. there were many cities up and down the east coast.
3. third, the west, beginning ca. 72 B.C.

These conclusions come from analyses of two data sources: 1) the list of geographic referents organized by date of first mention in the text (as a surrogate for polity founding date) published in the blog article "Expansion of the Nephite Nation", and 2) a list of all occurrences of the words "Sidon," "east," and "west" organized by contextual date of the passage in which they appear. This second list is available as an Excel spreadsheet here. To download, click first on "File" and then on "Download."

This map shows the first Nephite settlements in the river Sidon corridor, a single defensive outpost in the land Bountiful beside the west sea, and the beginnings of eastward expansion along the San Pedro river as per point #1 above.

Nephite lands (in white) ca. 90 B.C. either
explicitly attested or inferred in the text

This map adds those lands included in the eastward expansion of the Nephite nation as per point #2 above. The black circles represent areas (Piedras Negras on the north, Altar de Sacrificios/Dos Pilas on the south) unlikely to have ever been under Nephite control at any time.

Nephite lands (in white) ca. 67 B.C.
explicitly attested in the text

This map adds those lands mentioned in the text as part of the westward expansion of the Nephite nation as per point #3 above.

Nephite lands (in white) ca. 66 B.C. attested in the text

We can corroborate the Nephite settlement pattern outlined above by plotting the long string of Lamanite invasions and other military actions in and near the greater land of Zarahemla. These hostilities are organized in ascending chronological order from the time period ca. 200 B.C. when Mosiah₁ first entered the local land of Zarahemla through the time period ca. 31 B.C. when the Lamanites permanently occupied the south half of the greater land of Zarahemla. In the Book of Mormon Model dated August 21, 2012 or later, these 35 military actions are in the battles folder labelled Z1 through Z35, the "Z" designation meaning the greater land of Zarahemla.

1. King Benjamin, local land of Zarahemla & probably land of Minon, ca. 150 B.C. Omni 1:24, Words of Mormon 1:13-14
2. Amlicites, hill Amnihu in land of Gideon, ca. 87 B.C. Alma 2:15-19
3. Lamanites + Amlicites, local land of Zarahemla via land of Minon, ca. 87 B.C. Alma 2:27-28
4. Lamanites, land of Minon, ca. 87 B.C. Alma 3:20-23
5. Lamanites + Amulonites, land of Ammonihah, ca. 81 B.C. Alma 16:2, Alma 25:2
6. Lamanites + Amulonites, land of Noah, ca. 81 B.C. Alma 16:3
7. Captain Zoram & Sons, wilderness south of land of Manti & east of Sidon, ca. 81 B.C. Alma 16:7-8
8. Captain Zoram & Sons, wilderness south of land of Manti & east of Sidon, ca. 81 B.C. Alma 25:3
9. Lamanites, location not specified, ca. 78 B.C. Alma 16:12
10. Lamanites, east wilderness south of newly settled land of Jershon, ca. 77 B.C. Alma 28:1-3
11. Zerahemnah (Lamanites + Zoramites + Amlicites (critical text emendation for "Amalekites"), southern border of Jershon & northern border of Antionum, ca. 74 B.C. Alma 43:18
12. Zerahemnah, east of Sidon, south of land of Manti, ca. 74 B.C. Alma 43:36-38
13. Zerahemnah, west of Sidon, south of land of Manti, ca. 74 B.C. Alma 43:41
14. Amalickiah, wilderness south of the land of Manti, ca. 73 B.C. Alma 46:32
15. Lamanites + Zoramites, city of Ammonihah, ca. 72 B.C. Alma 49:11
16. Lamanites + Zoramites, city of Noah, ca. 72 B.C. Alma 49:21-23
17. Morianton, narrow pass near the west sea Bountiful/Desolation border, ca. 68 B.C. Alma 50:33-35
18. Amalickiah, cities of Moroni, Lehi, Morianton, Omner, Gid & Mulek along the east seacoast, ca. 67 B.C., Alma 51:22-26. Note: the term "Nephihah" in Alma 51:26 is a known error in the text. Royal Skousen's critical text correctly emends this word to read "Moroni."
19. Teancum, southern border of the land Bountiful near the east seacoast, ca. 67 B.C. Alma 51:28-31
20. Ammoron, cities of Manti, Zeezrom, Cumeni & Antiparah, ca. 66 B.C. Alma 56:13-14
21. Helaman & Antipus, west sea area north of Antiparah, ca. 65 B.C. Alma 56:49-54
22. Jacob, northwest of the city of Mulek near the east coast, ca. 64 B.C. Alma 52:31-36
23. Helaman & Gid, Cumeni on the south western border of the greater land of Zarahemla, ca. 63 B.C. Alma 57:17-22
24. Moroni, city of Gid on the east coast, ca. 63 B.C. Alma 55:20-23
25. Helaman, Gid & Teomner, city of Manti on the extreme southern border of the greater land of Zarahemla, ca. 63 B.C. Alma 58:27-29
26. Lamanites, city of Nephihah in the south eastern quarter of the greater land of Zarahemla, ca. 62 B.C. Alma 59:7-8
27. Moroni & Parhoran (critical text emendation of "Pahoran"), north of the city of Nephihah, ca. 61 B.C. Alma 62:14-15
28. Moroni & Parhoran, city of Nephihah, ca. 61 B.C. Alma 62:23-26
29. Moroni, Lehi & Teancum, city of Moroni, ca. 61 B.C. Alma 62:38
30. Moronihah, location not specified, ca. 53 B.C. Alma 63:15
31. Coriantumr, city of Zarahemla, ca. 51 B.C. Helaman 1:19-20
32. Moronihah & Lehi, north of the local land of Zarahemla, south of land Bountiful, ca. 51 B.C. Helaman 1:28-30
33. Lamanites, all of the greater land of Zarahemla, Nephites driven into land of Bountiful, ca. 34 B.C. Helaman 4:5-6
34. Moronihah, west sea to the east along a fortification line 1 day's journey in length, ca. 33 B.C. Helaman 4:7
35. Moronihah, northern half of the former Nephite homelands in the greater land of Zarahemla, ca. 31 B.C. Helaman 4:9-10

This map shows military actions 1 - 8 in and near the greater land of Zarahemla through ca. 81 B.C. Action 9, ca. 78 B.C. has no provenance in the text, so cannot be mapped. Note that all of these engagements are in the central Sidon corridor or slightly east of it as the Nephite settlement data predicts for this time period.

Military actions through ca. 78 B.C. Nephite victories
are shown as red icons, Lamanite victories as blue

This map adds military actions 10 - 19 with dates through ca. 67 B.C. Note that all of these hostilities are in the central Sidon corridor or the east, except for one area near the Bountiful/Desolation border on the west sea. Again, the hostilities map mirrors the Nephite settlement map for this time period.

Military actions through ca. 67 B.C. - central Sidon corridor,
points east, and a single defensive outpost by the west sea

This map adds military actions 20 - 32 with dates through ca. 51 B.C. when the Nephite nation had begun settling the west. Action 30 has no provenance in the text, so cannot be mapped.

Military actions through ca. 51 B.C. Nephite victories in red
Lamanite victories in blue

In ca. 34 B.C., the Lamanites conquered all of the greater land of Zarahemla, forcing the Nephites into the land Bountiful and beyond. The following year, the Nephites set up a fortified east west line along the west coast. This map represents military actions 33 & 34. The white overlays represent the greater lands of Nephi and Zarahemla, both under Lamanite control in ca. 33 B.C.

Military actions through ca. 33 B.C. when the Lamanites
had conquered the entire greater land of Zarahemla

In ca. 31 B.C., the Nephites under Captain Moronihah regained the northern half of their former territories. This map shows the reduced Lamanite possessions, again as a white overlay. Note how the proposed lands recaptured by Moronihah follow the San Pedro river, northern tributary of the Usumacinta. The lands that from ca. 31 B.C. on were permanent Lamanite territory follow the Pasion river, southern tributary of the Usumacinta.

Military actions through ca. 31 B.C. when the Nephites
had regained one half of their former territory

Summary: The Nephites settled the central Sidon corridor from Zarahemla on the north to Manti on the south early in their history. They established a defensive outpost at a key point on the west coast, then began to expand eastward, probably following tributaries of the Sidon. Every Nephite polity in the greater land of Zarahemla referenced in the text through ca. 67 B.C. was along the central Sidon corridor or in the east. The Nephite westward expansion began in ca. 72 B.C. with the first place names in the west appearing in the text 4 years later. The textual semantic, settlement and military action data all match this Sidon - east - then west pattern.

Book of Mormon Model

The Google Earth kmz file hyperlinked ten times in this article is a comprehensive, though not exhaustive spatial model of Nephite cities, lands and places in the Book of Mormon. You must have Google Earth (available here free of charge for PC, Mac or Linux) installed on your computer to open this file. All of the static images in the article "Book of Mormon Map" and most of the images on this blog came from this model. The image below represents only a small fraction of the data in the model. As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge.

Image rendered by Google Earth Book of Mormon Model
October 2, 2013 edition

Book of Mormon Model. Last Updated January 30, 2016. 14 MB. This is the most ambitious attempt to date to correlate the text of the Book of Mormon with spatial data available in Google Earth. If you interpret the text as I (Kirk Magleby) do:

north = north, east = east
northward = northerly, southward = southerly
narrow = narrow, small = small
near & by = geographically proximate
up = vertical rise, down = vertical drop
center & heart = middle or midpoint
cross over = travel through a barrier, typically a mountain or river
one day's travel = approximately 15 straight line (air) kilometers
take journey (military version "take march") = significant multi-day travel
sea east to sea west = Atlantic (Caribbean) to Pacific
round about = in a circular motion or pattern
wilderness = territory, often sparsely populated, not under Nephite (or Lamanite depending on the referent) political control
yea clauses provide additional information about the previous clause (credit Royal Skousen with this pivotal insight - see note below)
etc.

then this correlation can be empirically demonstrated 100% using the powerful data sets & tools available in Google Earth. In other words, this model works. It fits the text precisely and consistently.
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Antecedents. In 1976, M. Wells Jakeman taught his "Archaeology of the Book of Mormon" class for the final time at BYU prior to his retirement. I was fortunate to be in that class where all students were required to draw a Book of Mormon map. Mine was crude, mirroring my knowledge of the Book of Mormon text and Mesoamerica at the time, but I still have it. As I internalized some of Jakeman's passion for the Nephite scripture, I  sensed that I would return to this endeavor at some future date when I was prepared to make a contribution. So, to Professor Jakeman (who passed away in 1998) I am pleased to report that after 36 years I have finally created a Book of Mormon map that bears scrutiny.

In 1979, John L. Sorenson and I met John W. Welch for the first time. After Welch moved to Provo the following year, the three of us were the early directors of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). I was privileged to help Sorenson in small ways with the publication of his watershed An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon Salt Lake City: Deseret Book & FARMS, 1985. We spent many hours working with the cartographers at the University of Utah who prepared the splendid maps for that seminal publication. I have never been able to square John's geography model with my reading of the text, but my intellectual debt to him is incalculable. I was the second reviewer on Amazon and the first reviewer on Deseret Book when his eagerly awaited magnum opus, Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book appeared in September, 2013.

In 2006, V. Garth Norman and I spent two weeks in central and southern Mexico. We had been on Mesoamerican expeditions together before, but this time Garth convinced me that his correlation of the narrow strip of wilderness was pivotal to an accurate understanding of Book of Mormon spatial relationships. I helped fund the initial publication of his "Book of Mormon - Mesoamerican Historic Geography Study Map" and several thousand copies of that important work are now in circulation among Book of Mormon students worldwide. About 80% of my Google Earth Book of Mormon Model is based on Garth's map. My work is essentially a refinement of the "Mormon-Norman" correlation.

For the last several years, I have been an enthusiastic participant in the annual Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (BMAF) "Lands of the Book of Mormon" Conference. This has given me the chance to rub shoulders with devoted Book of Mormon students such as Joseph L. & Blake J. Allen, Joe V. Andersen, Stephen L. Carr, Douglas K. Christensen, F. Richard Hauck, Lawrence L. Poulsen and Ted D. Stoddard. The Allens helped me sort out the Nephite east coast. Hauck & Andersen pioneered the correlation I now accept on the west coast. Larry Poulsen introduced me to the power of Google Earth. Ted Stoddard motivated me to commit my ideas to writing. And Steve Carr & Doug Christensen have helped me refine my presentation as we have collaborated on occasional conference calls.
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The Text. I have made the bold assertion that this model fits the Book of Mormon text with no discrepancies. My interpretation of the text assumes we can take the Elizabethan 'King James' English that fell from the Prophet Joseph's lips at face value a la 2 Nephi 25:7 & Alma 13:23. See the article "Plainness." But, which version of the text? Royal Skousen's The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Commonly called "The Book of Mormon Critical Text," Skousen's edition is essential for any serious Book of Mormon student who ferrets meaning from passages by carefully considering each word in context. See the article "Scribal Error" in this blog for examples of problems in the 1981 LDS text germane to any discussion of Book of Mormon New World geographical correlations. See the article "Bountiful - The Text" in this blog for examples of Royal Skousen's critical text emendations superimposed on the 1981 LDS text, highlighting the variant readings.

The Book of Mormon was published in 1830. That was 183 years ago. Why has it taken us this long to produce an empirically verifiable Book of Mormon map? Part of the answer: We didn't have a widely accessible de facto standard text until the Yale University Press edition came out in 2009.
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The Technology. The Book of Mormon text is often ambiguous. Therefore, solving the geography puzzle is a complex, multi-variate problem requiring best fit analysis across several hundred data points. That was dauntingly difficult before the advent of user-friendly Geographic Information System (GIS) software such as Google Earth. In August, 2011 when I began to write about this research odyssey, it was obvious that decades of wrangling over sub-disciplines of anthropology and paper maps had not and likely would not ever produce breakthrough results. We were arguing over which river was the Sidon in the 1970's and in 2011 we were still arguing. We were comparing a highly reliable source (the text) with subjective, evolving sources (the shifting sands of anthropological opinion).

So, I posed a simple question: What if I compared one highly reliable source (the text) with other highly reliable sources (elevation, directionality, distance, topography, hydrology, population density, forest cover, etc.)? We might quibble now and again about textual exegesis, but it would be hard to discredit satellite imagery from NASA and ESA.
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Results. Focusing first on the river Sidon, in about a month the question was settled to my satisfaction. The Usumacinta is a decisively better fit to the text than the Grijalva. See the blog article "Water Fight on the River - Round Nine." Analyzing individual Nephite polities convinced me this Google Earth-based topographical approach facilites robust micro geographies that are capable of enriching our understanding of the text. See the blog articles "Ammonihah," "Gideon," "Hermounts," "Manti," "Melek," "Minon," "Sidom," "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage," "The Narrow (Small) Neck of Land," and "The Narrow Strip of Wilderness." As the model came together in a way that many found clear and convincing (see the blog article "The Usumacinta/Sidon Correlation") I ventured to analyze the life and times of one iconic Book of Mormon hero whose detailed narrative accounts for about ten percent of the entire text. See the article "Captain Moroni in Space and Time" in this blog. The feedback was encouraging. Many, such as my friend Larry Stay (formerly Guatemala City South Mission President), said they were excited to now understand the war chapters in Alma more logically and vividly than ever before.

I posted a few teasers to test the feasibility of kmz file publication on Google infrastructure. See the article "Google Earth Downloads" in this blog. About a month later I had a version of the comprehensive Book of Mormon Model that I deemed worthy of publication. Note: all 9 of the Google Earth kmz files available individually on the "Google Earth Downloads" blog article are included in the much larger Book of Mormon Model. When you download the 14 MB Book of Mormon Model you get the latest version of everything packaged in a single kmz file.
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Breakthrough Insights. A handful of key relationships enabled the success of this model. 1) Ammonihah, Noah & Sidom were all east, not west of Sidon. See the blog articles "Ammonihah," "The Usumacinta/Sidon Correlation," and "Ammonihah Noah & Sidom all East of Sidon" for extended treatments of this important paradigm shift. 2) The narrow neck really was narrow, straddling the east-west Bountiful-Desolation border. See the articles "Captain Moroni in Space and Time," "Sidon East then West," "The Narrow Pass and Narrow Passage" and "The Narrow (Small) Neck of Land" in this blog for maps showing a number of correlations, including the narrow neck, clustered along the west coast. 3) Nephite settlement followed the rivers. See the blog articles "Expansion of the Nephite Nation" and "Sidon East then West" to visualize the Nephite republic's orderly, intuitive growth patterns. 4) If a place had a wilderness side, that topographic feature is distinguishable in modern geo-coded satellite imagery. See the blog articles "Ammonihah," "Manti" and "Melek" for salient examples. 5) The Nephites did not control all of the territory in the land southward north of the narrow strip of wilderness. Large areas such as the Mirador Basin in northern Peten were never part of the Nephite republic. See the article "Bountiful - Context" for a discussion of Nephite co-existence with their powerful neighbors. The article "Plainness" discusses the Nephites' non-exclusive territoriality. 6) One day's travel was a standard unit of measure in Nephite culture. See the blog article "Land Southward Travel Times" for a data-driven derivation of this fundamental metric. 7) The term "Zarahemla" referring to a land has three distinct geographic meanings in the text: a) the local land of Zarahemla west of Sidon, b) the greater land of Zarahemla contiguous with and exclusive of the land Bountiful, and c) the continental land of Zarahemla inclusive of Bountiful, contiguous with the greater land of Nephi, and together with Nephi constituting the entire land southward. See the blog article "Zarahemla." Other lands with multiple geographic meanings include Bountiful, Desolation, Lehi and Nephi. The term "Lehi" is applied a single time to the entire land southward, in parallel with the term "Mulek" applied to the entire land northward Helaman 6:10. Most other references to "land" in the text refer to local lands or personal land holdings. "Lehi-Nephi" was a politically correct term used only in the first few years of the reign of King Zeniff. Before and after that brief window in time, the Nephite term was simply "Nephi."
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Caveats. While I consider the current Book of Mormon Model a significant milestone in the history of Book of Mormon studies, it is still rough in a number of spots and far from finished. Lamanite lands in the greater land of Nephi have been analyzed with less rigor than Nephite lands north of the narrow strip of wilderness. Jaredite lands have been examined only superficially. Nephite toponyms with limited contextual referents (Angola, Boaz, David, etc.) are tentative. Textual references hyperlinked to the online 2013 text hosted on lds.org are not yet consistently applied. Interested students will understand the model in greater depth if they will read the articles posted on this blog, only some of which are currently hyperlinked in the model itself. Many more external corroborations, movements, battlefields, etc. need to be looked at. Nevertheless, this work is substantial. It represents many thousands of hours of effort and is almost certainly the most sophisticated and empirically rigorous attempt to date to correlate the Book of Mormon text with a real world location.
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Prospectus. I expect this work will eventually lead to an illustrated Book of Mormon atlas done with enough rigor that lay readers of the Nephite text worldwide will benefit.
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Note: "Yea as an Indicator of Further Explication" in Royal Skousen, "The Systematic Text of the Book of Mormon" in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Volume 11, Issue 2, Provo: Maxwell Institute, 2002.
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Article updated January 30, 2016

V Garth Norman in Mexico City

Important Book of Mormon scholar, V. Garth Norman, has been invited by INAH to present his Izapa calendar studies at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City on Friday, August 17th, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. in the Jaime Torres Bodet Auditorium. Norman recently gave a similar presentation sponsored by the Government of the State of Chiapas in Tapachula, the large city near the site of Izapa. This illustrated lecture (in English with simultaneous Spanish translation) is free of charge, but advance registration is required. Click on this link to access registration information.

Advertisement for Garth Norman's presentation August 17, 2012
at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City

Observant readers will notice a portion of the celebrated Izapa Stela 5 in the graphic above. This is the full image taken from Norman's 1973 NWAF publication "Izapa Sculpture Part 1: Album".

Izapa Stela 5 from Norman "Izapa Sculpture"

The scene on this monument has been highly controversial in the history of Book of Mormon research. In 1999 a new rendering was published by John E. Clark and Ayax Moreno in an attempt to radically re-interpret Stela 5's symbolism. The Clark - Moreno image is seriously flawed. Here is one of the original National Geographic photographs of Stela 5 from Matthew W. Stirling's 1941 expedition when the monument was freshly dug out of the ground and not nearly as weathered as it is today.

Photograph of Izapa Stela 5 made in 1941 during Matthew W.
Stirling's original National Geographic expedition 

This earliest image corroborates Norman's 1973 rendition contra Clark - Moreno. INAH is currently building an Izapa sculpture garden in Tuxtla Chico, Chiapas using replicas of the monuments. When it is complete, it will be similar to La Venta Park in Villahermosa, Tabasco. INAH's replicas are based on Garth Norman's work.

Google Earth Downloads

The following Google Earth kmz files are available for you to download. These files were a test of the download technology we are using. All 9 files are included in the comprehensive Book of Mormon Model.  Google Earth, available free of charge here, must be installed on your computer in order for you to open these files.

Image of the Mesoamerican Rivers kmz file rendered in Google
Earth. To download this file, click on the link below.

Mesoamerican Rivers. Last Updated July 23, 2012 with the addition of the Tapanal and the Sacsi north west of Guatemala City in the vicinity of the proposed waters of Mormon. Rivers were the highways of the ancient world. In order to understand the Book of Mormon environment, one must have a good grasp of major drainage basins in the area. This Google Earth file plots dozens of river systems, with particular emphasis on the Usumacinta (shown in red), Grijalva (shown in blue) and Motagua (shown, along with all other rivers, in yellow). This file represents hundreds of hours of work and although quite useful, is still incomplete.
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Image of the Isthmian Continental Divide kmz file rendered in
Google Earth. To download this file, click on the link below.

Isthmian Continental Divide. Last Updated June 27, 2012. A great deal of action in The Book of Mormon takes place in a narrow strip along the west coast and in the interface zone between the land southward and the land northward. In order to understand travel routes in this isthmian area straddling the modern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, it is important to locate the ridge line separating Pacific and Atlantic watersheds. This Google Earth file plots the continental divide (shown in black) with representative elevation placemarks.
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Image of the Isthmian Railroad kmz file rendered in Google Earth.
To download this file, click on the link below.

Isthmian Railroad. Last updated July 23, 2012 with color change from yellow to magenta to provide better visual contrast when overlaid with Mesoamerican Rivers. Since railroad track engineers are limited to gentle grades and wide curves, rail routes tend to make effective use of any given topography. This Google Earth file plots the rail line (shown in magenta) from Pijijiapan, Chiapas through the Isthmian part of Oaxaca and northward into Veracruz. The red circle indicates an area of particular interest where the Sierra Madre extends almost to the Pacific shoreline.
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Image of the Olmec Sites kmz file rendered in Google Earth.
To download this file, click on the link below.

Olmec Sites. Last Updated July 5, 2012. The Olmec have long been considered the mother culture of Mesoamerica. An Egyptian - Olmec Connection has now been firmly established (see the article "Book Notice - Exodus Lost by Stephen C. Compton" in this blog). The Book of Mormon Jaredites were to some extent coeval and coterminus with the Olmec. This Google Earth file plots 75 Olmec and heavily Olmec-influenced sites (orange pyramid icons).
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Image of the Zoque sites kmz file (partial content) rendered in Google Earth.
To download this file, click on the link below.

Zoque Sites. Last Updated July 14, 2012. The Zoque, derived from the Olmec, were a powerful regional culture headquartered at Chiapa de Corzo from ca. 900 B.C. to ca. 400 B.C. The large blue polygon represents their area of influence at apogee. The smaller blue polygon is the region in Chiapas known as La Frailesca, an area closely associated with the Zoque in late pre-classic times. This Google Earth file plots 16 Zoque sites (red pyramid icons).
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Image of the Izapan Sites kmz file rendered in Google Earth.
To download this file, click on the link below.

Izapan Sites. Last Updated July 14, 2012. Izapa is a stylistically important site in the Soconusco Region (blue polygon) of Chiapas and Guatemala. Oriented to the towering volcanic peaks Tacana and Tajumulco, Izapa, which flourished ca. 300 B.C., is transitional between the Olmec and the Maya. It is generally considered the birthplace of the Maya calendar. This Google Earth file, based on the research of V. Garth Norman, plots 40 sites with Izapan influence (brown pyramid icons).

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Image of the Teotihuacan Sites kmz file rendered in Google Earth.
To download this file, click on the link below.

Teotihuacan Sites. Last Updated July 16, 2012. Teotihuacan, in central Mexico near present-day Mexico City, began its ascendancy ca. 100 B.C. For the next 600 years, it was the most powerful military, economic and cultural force in Mesoamerica. This Google Earth file plots 17 sites with strong Teotihuacan influence (black pyramid icons).
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Image of the Ancient Maya World kmz file (partial content) rendered in
Google Earth. To download this file, click on the link below.

Ancient Maya World. Last Updated July 16, 2012. The brilliant Maya civilization began ca. 1,500 B.C. and reached its classic period zenith ca. A.D. 600 - 800. Several thousand ancient Maya sites are known to science. This Google Earth file contains a variety of spatial data sets that help one visualize the ancient Maya.

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Image of the Known Travels kmz file rendered in Google Earth.
To download this file, click on the link below.

Known Travels. Last updated July 16, 2012. A key metric in The Book of Mormon is one day's travel. In order to derive a working approximation for this standard measure, we analyzed 19 pre-industrial journeys throughout southern Mesoamerica (See the blog article "Land Southward Travel Times.") This Google Earth file plots these 19 known historical journeys. And, this Excel spreadsheet contains the distance calculations. To download the xlsx file, click on the link above and then click on File followed by Download.
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