True Book of Mormon Geography

11. CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

Geographers are not respecting the cardinal directions. Part of that problem is due to their lack of respect for how the record was written. The record was previously translated into english before Joseph dictated it to his scribes. The translator(s) did everything they could to make the writing congruent with our understanding. For example, "Bible" means Bible, and "North" meant North.

Hebrew

Mizrach is translated "east" "eastward" and "sunrise" (Deuteronomy 3:27).

Ma`arab is translated "west" "westward" and "sunset" (Isaiah 45:6).

As followers of the Law of Moses, they followed the rising and setting of the sun for what was east and west. That did not change in the new world.

12. POPULATION

Some have mistaken verses like "they began to cover the face of the whole earth" (Helaman 3:8, 11:20; Mormon 1:7) to mean the Nephite population was exceedingly large, and that their land was exceedingly large. In reality, it only means their land was small.

After the Nephites joined with the Mulekites in Zarahemla (The largest city ever.) they set up churches. It says that after their largest conversion ever, there were only seven churches in all of the Land of Zarahemla (Mosiah 25:23), and their total population was half that of the Lamanites. (Mosiah 25:3)

Another example is Jacob, who after a mere "55+ years since they left Jerusalem" (Jacob 1:1) described polygamy (Jacob 2:24,26), war (Jacob 7:24-25), multitudes (Jacob 7:17), and a stranger (Jacob 7:1). Yet, there were only two priests and teachers. (Jacob 1:18)

Except for influxes during wartime, the Nephite population was small.

13. DISTANCES

It is irresponsible for geographers to base their models on isolated instances of travel times. In every case where distances are stated, they are stated in time not miles.

Without knowing the following factors:

• The terrain (hills or ground cover).
• Time of the year (number of daylight hours).
• The traveling party (total number, number of sick, aged, maimed, infants and small children).
• Animals (their number, flocks, herds).
• Belongings (clothes, utensils, tools).
• Supplies (food, water, seeds).
• Tents.
• Weapons.
• How many times they had to backtrack.

Any guess would be unreliable.

Variables not considered:

• No travel on the Sabbath - an eight day journey was actually seven; a 21 day 18!
• Food. In large groups (450), a single meal would have required a considerable amount of time to find, kill and prepare.
• Setting up and taking down of tents.
• Scouts. It took time for scouts to look ahead, then return and report - all day.
• Waterways were likely followed as sources of water, the ground cover along thick in parts.
• Construction of creek or river crossings.
• How often did they readjust their course and have to backtrack? If they went x days the wrong direction, it would require an additional x days to correct with a total loss of time 2 times x.

Here's an example of a prepared group:

Early in October, the troops left Fort Pitt, and began their westward march into a wilderness which no army had ever before sought to penetrate. Encumbered with their camp equipage, with droves of cattle and sheep for subsistence, and a long train of pack horses laden with provision, their progress was tedious and difficult, and seven or eight miles were the ordinary measure of a day's march. The woodsmen of Virginia, veteran hunters and Indian-fighters, were thrown far out in front, and on either flank, scouring the forest to detect any sign of a lurking ambuscade. The pioneers toiled in the van, hewing their way through woods and thickets, while the army dragged its weary length behind them through the forest, like a serpent creeping through tall grass. (By Francis Parkman Jr., History of the conspiracy of Pontiac, and the War of the North American Tribes Against the English Colonies, 1851 p. 485) 

See also Line Bountiful, Size. 

To visualize the lay of the land, we must see it as the writer saw it - from eye level. There are many clues:

• They believed they were on an isle of the sea (2 Nephi 10:20; 29:7).
• The Land Northward was completely surrounded by water (Helaman 3:8).
• The Land Southward was nearly surrounded by water (Alma 22:32).
• The width of the land, from the East Sea to the West Sea was 1.5 days wide (Alma 22:32).
• The length of the land (Alma 22:29) from Bountiful on the north (Alma 27:22) to Manti on the south (Alma 16:7; 22:27) was a day (Alma 43:18-24).
• The width from Zarahemla to the East Sea less than a day (Alma 58:14, 24-25).
• The length of the Jaredite Land Northward was less than a day (Ether 15:8-11).

The reason it was easy to get lost or take forever to find Zarahemla was due to the fact it was surronded by TEN PARALLEL hills and valleys (MAP), NOT because it was a far distance. Unless they took the correct hill/valley course they would miss it. They could try TEN TIMES (Or zig-zag through half of them.) before finding the correct hill and valley.

The only distance we are told that was not random, was the route east to west "on the line Bountiful." It was a day and a half's journey for a single person to cross this flat plain (Alma 22:32), which distance covered the combined width of the lands Nephi and Zarahemla, not the Narrow Neck only. (Details are on the Narrow Passage page.)

Examples of distances and travel times:

• Andrew Jackson traveled 500 miles with 2000 soldiers - 3 months. (Winter)
• Sullivan Expedition of 4000 soldiers averaged 3 - 22 miles a day. (Summer)

14. ZARAHEMLA - NEPHI

As stated on our Land Southward page, geographers have incorrectly placed the Land of Zarahemla completely north of the Land of Nephi, when in fact, they were partly side-by-side.

By correctly reading the scriptures without the uninspired punctuation, geographers will see that the entire Nephite lands, from the East to the West Sea were small - approximately 75 miles wide, and the Narrow Passage was less than a hundred yards wide - a distance that makes sense at eye level (i.e. Mormon's level.), not map level (i.e. Misinformed researchers.).

15. SEAS

As we document on our West Sea page, a great many Book of Mormon cities were on or near seashores, whether they were on the north, east, or west seashores. The Lamanites also lived along the seashores - they being a lazy people, not wanting to dig wells, or port water.

Though they crossed the "great deep" to come to the Promised Land, the "great deep" does not border Book of Mormon lands.

Unless geographers can show fresh water sources that parallel ALL three seashores, their models won't work. This is another real lfe dynamic that has been missed.

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