# A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Nephi, Land of

​NEPHI, LAND OF. From the days of the first Mosiah to the era of Christ's advent, South America was divided into two grand divisions. These were the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi. During this period, except in times of war, the Lamanites occupied the land of Nephi, and the Nephites inhabited the land of Zarahemla. That these two lands occupied the whole of the southern continent is shown by the statement of the sacred writer: "Thus the land, of Nephi, and the land of Zarahemla, were nearly surrounded by water; there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.” The width of this narrow neck of land is in one place said to have been the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite. In another place it is called a day's journey. Perhaps the places spoken of are not identical, one may have been slightly to the north of the other, along the line of the isthmus.
Both the lands of Nephi and Zarahemla were subdivided, for governmental purposes, into smaller lands, states or districts. Among the Nephites, these lands, in the days of the republic, were ruled by local chief judges, subject to the chief judge of the whole nation; and among the Lamanites by kings, who were tributary to the head king, whose seat of government was at the city of Lehi-Nephi.
The land of Nephi covered a much larger area ​of country than did the land of Zarahemla. The two countries were separated by the wilderness which extended entirely across the continent from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The northern edge of this wilderness ran in a line almost due east and west, and passed near the head of the river Sidon. All north of this belt of wilderness was considered the land of Zarahemla; all south of it was included in the land of Nephi.
The exact place where Lehi and his little colony first landed on that continent is not stated in the Book of Mormon; but it is generally believed among the Latter-day Saints, from a statement made by the Prophet Joseph, to be on the coast of Chili, in thirty degrees south latitude.
In the region where Lehi landed, there he also died. Soon after his death, Nephi, and those of the colony who wished to serve the Lord, migrated, by the command of God, to another country. The reason for this command was the murderous hatred shown by Laman and Lemuel towards Nephi and his friends. Nephi and his company journeyed in the wilderness. By the expression "the wilderness," we understand the inspired writer to mean the uncultivated and uninhabited portions of the land. The journey of the Nephites was northward, as is shown by their later history; but Nephi, in his very brief account of this migration, says nothing with regard to the direction in which they traveled. At the end of many days a land was found which was deemed suitable for settlement. There the company pitched their tents, and commenced the tilling of the soil. In honor of their leader, it was called the land of Nephi.
No doubt the choice of location was made by Divine inspiration. It was a highly favored land, rich in mineral and vegetable productions, and yielded abundant crops to the labors of the ​husbandmen. It appears to have been near some great waters, the Pacific Ocean or an inland sea, for Jacob, Nephi's brother, in speaking of the potency of the faith of his people, says, "We truly can command in the name of Jesus, and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea." In this happy country the Nephites dwelt, prospered and increased until they again moved northward. Perhaps not once, nor twice, they migrated, but several times; for we hold it to be inconsistent with the story of the record and with good judgment to believe that in their first journey they traveled as far north as they were found four hundred years afterwards, when they again took up their line of march, and finally settled in the land of Zarahemla. In the first place, there was no necessity for Nephi and his people taking such a lengthy, tedious and hazardous journey; in the second place, in their weak condition, it was nigh unto an impossibility; again, in a few years the Lamanites had followed and overtaken them. It is altogether inconsistent to think that that people, with its racial characteristics, could in so short a time have accomplished so marvelous a triumph as to follow, hunt up and attack their late brethren, if the latter had placed all the distance from Chili to Ecuador between themselves and their pursuers. When we consider the difficulties of travel through the trackless wilderness, the obstacles interposed by nature, the lack of all roads or other guides to indicate where the Nephites had gone, it seems out of the question to imagine that in twenty years or so, the shiftless, unenterprising Lamanites had accomplished such a feat. To the contrary, we believe that Nephi and those with him traveled until they considered themselves safe, then settled down in a spot which they deemed desirable. By and by the Lamanites came upon them; the Nephites defended themselves as long as they could, and when they could do so no ​longer they again moved to the northward. Their early history was one of frequent wars; and as the Lord used the Lamanites as thorns in their sides when they turned from Him, we judge for this reason, and that they were found so far north in the days of Amaleki and Mosiah, that the savage descendants of Laman had frequently defeated them and driven them farther and farther away from the land of their first possession.
The inquiry will naturally arise, as a result of these suggestions: In what portion of the South American continent lay the home of the Nephites in the days of Mosiah? This cannot be answered authoritatively. We are nowhere told its exact situation. Still, there are many references in the Book of Mormon from which we can judge, to some extent, of its location. Apostle Orson Pratt suggested that it was in the country we now call Ecuador.
We believe that the lands occupied by the Nephites before they went down into the land of Zarahemla were situated among the table-lands or high valleys of the Andes, much as Utah is located in the bosom of the Rocky Mountains and parallel chains. For these reasons:
First — They were lands rich in minerals, which all through the American continents are found most abundantly in mountainous regions.
Secondly, the climate of the torrid low lands, almost directly under the equator, would be intolerable for its heat, and deadly in its humidity; while the country in the high valleys and tablelands would be excellently adapted to human life, especially (we may presume) before the great upheavals and convulsions that marked the death of the Redeemer.
It is also probable that in their journeys the Nephites would follow the most available route, rather than plunge into the dense, untrodden, primeval forests of the wilderness; the home of ​all manner of savage animals, venomous snakes and poisonous reptiles, where a road would have to be cut every foot of the way through the most luxuriant and gigantic tropical vegetation to be found on the face of the globe. Therefore we regard its accessibility as another reason for believing that the Nephites did not leave the great backbone of the continent to descend into the unexplored depths of the region whose character they aptly sum up in the one word, wilderness.
It must be remembered that there were two lands called by the name of Nephi. The one was a limited district immediately surrounding the city of Lehi-Nephi or Nephi. There Mosiah and the Nephites dwelt, about two hundred years before Christ. The other land of Nephi occupied the whole of the continent south of the great wilderness. This wilderness formed its northern boundary, and its frontier thereon ran in a straight course from the east to the west sea, or, to use our modern geographical names, in a straight line from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
As this wilderness, though of great length east and west, was but a narrow strip north and south, and its northern edge ran close to the head waters of the River Sidon (or Magdalena), it is evident that the land of Nephi covered by far the greater portion of South America. Within its wide boundaries was situated the original land of Nephi, as well as many other lands called by various local names.
It is very obvious how there grew to be these two lands of Nephi. At first, the small district around the capital city comprised all the territory occupied by the Nephites. As they spread out, whatever valley, plain, etc., they reclaimed from the wilderness was considered a part of that land; and thus, year by year, its borders grew wider and wider, while for convenience sake or govermental purposes, the newly built cities and ​the land surrounding were called by varied names, according to the wishes of the people, most frequently after the leader of the out-going colony or founder of the city. To distinguish the smaller land of Nephi from the whole country, it is sometimes called the land of Lehi-Nephi.
We have stated that the small land of Nephi was a very limited district. We think this is easily proven. It was so limited in extent that we are told king Noah built a tower near the temple so high that he could stand upon the top thereof and overlook not only the land of Lehi-Nephi where it was built, but also the land of Shilom and the land of Shemlon, which last named land was possessed by the Lamanites. No matter how high the tower, the land of Lehi-Nephi must have been comparatively small to have enabled a man to overlook all three lands from the top of one building.
It was on the borders of this land, in the forest of Mormon, that Alma used to hide himself. It was there he gathered the believers in his teachings, baptized them in the waters of Mormon, and organized the Church of Jesus Christ. From the waters of Mormon to Zarahemla it was twenty-two days' actual travel for an emigrant train.
Alma having been warned of the Lord fled with his people into the wilderness which divided the lands of Nephi and Zarahemla. They journeyed for eight days when they rested and commenced to build a city, which they called Helam. Being afterwards compelled to leave this city, on account of the persecutions of the Lamanites and Amulonites, they again took their journey northward, and reached the homes of the main body of the Nephites in Zarahemla in about fourteen days.
Here we have a people encumbered and delayed by flocks and herds, heavily laden with grain, ​etc., making the journey, in two separate stages in twenty-two days. It is scarcely supposable that they traveled in a direct line; mountains, rivers and swamps would render the journey somewhat circuitous or winding. But even supposing that they did advance in an almost direct line from point to point, it would only make the distance between Nephi and Zarahemla 220 miles, if they traveled ten miles a day; 330, if they traveled fifteen miles; and 440 if they journeyed twenty miles a day.
Zarahemla was situated on the Sidon, certainly a considerable distance from its head waters, as other lands and cities such as Minon and Manti are mentioned as lying far above it. If we measure the distance from such a point southward, either 200, 300 or 400 miles, all these measurements will bring us into the country now called Ecuador.
We are of the opinion that the land of Lehi-Nephi was situated in one of the higher valleys, or extensive plateaus of the Andes. In the first place, admitting it was in Ecuador, it would lie almost immediately under the equator, and the lowlands would be unbearable for an industrious population on account of the great heat; as well as exceedingly unhealthy.
Again, the crops which the Nephites raised most abundantly—barley and wheat—are not those that flourish in a tropical climate, but can be grown most advantageously in a temperate region.
It was also a land rich in mineral wealth, which is not probable would have been the case if it had been situated among the wide-spreading alluvial plains east of the Andes.
It is likewise spoken of as a hilly or mountainous country. The hill north of the land of Shilom is frequently mentioned in the historical narrative.
For another reason, the expression "up" is ​almost always used when reference is made to persons going towards the land of Nephi. Not only did they travel from Zarahemla up the Sidon and across the wilderness to Nephi, but also UP from the land of Ishmael and other portions of the land of Nephi to the city of Nephi and its surroundings. In contradistinction to this, persons leaving Nephi went down to the land of Zarahemla and other places.
The only time in which the word down is used, when referring to parties going towards Nephi, is when certain persons came down to the city from off the hill mentioned above.
In the second generation the Nephites began to grow numerous, and iniquity made its appearance among them. It was then that Jacob, their priest, prophesied: The time speedily cometh, that except ye repent, they [the Lamanites] shall possess the land of your inheritance, and the Lord God will lead away the righteous out from among you. This prophecy was completely fulfilled, if not on previous occasions, about 300 years or so afterwards, when Mosiah, by the command of God, led the righteous Nephites out of the land of their inheritance—the land of Nephi—down into the land of Zarahemla.
From that time the land of Nephi was possessed and ruled by the posterity of Laman, Lemuel and Ishmael; or by Nephite apostates, who, with superior cunning, worked themselves on to the Lamanite throne.
During the era that the Nephites dwelt in the land of Nephi they built several cities. These the Lamanites eagerly took possession of when Mosiah and his people vacated them. Reference to them is found in the record of Zeniff's return from Zarahemla, and reoccupancy, by treaty with the Lamanites, of a portion of the old Nephite home, known as Lehi-Nephi and Shilom.
Our next information regarding the condition ​of the land of Nephi is gleaned from the history of the mission of the sons of king Mosiah to the Lamanites in that region. This mission began B. C. 91, and lasted fourteen years. The country was then divided into several distinct kingdoms, each ruled by its own king, but all subject to the head monarch, whose court was at Nephi. The lands specially mentioned in connection with this mission are those of Nephi, Middoni, Ishmael, Shilom, Shemlon, Helam, Amulon and Jerusalem.