The Great Lakes Theory

As was extensively discussed in recent posts, the Great Lakes Theory of the location for the Land of Promise is fraught with many holes, not the least of which is how they would have traveled there.

Lehi informed his posterity before his death: “And it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance” (2 Nephi 1:8). One can only wonder if the Lehi Colony left form the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in 600 B.C., what other peoples along the route might have thought.

According to Corinna Riva in “Mediterranean Urbanization, between the second half of the eighth and the end of the seventh centuries B.C., more than a century before Lehi set sail, movements of human groups in search of trading partners and material goods, land and resources, and new lives and opportunities increased the level of interaction between Mediterranean regions. As constant communication was established through long-distance travel and trade, the Mediterranean Sea became an open stage for the international exchange of cultural stimuli among groups.

At this time, along the eastern Mediterranean, the sea-going Greeks were developing mathematics and astronomy, and from 700 B.C. onward cities were being established in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea. The Dorians entered the mainland part of Greece, and the Ionians settled at the Eastern part, the Mycenae settled in Crete, Italy, Cyprus and Sicily.

Trade routes were established all across the Mediterranean. Banished leaders were founding colonies along the coastal regions, slaves were being acquired around the Mediterranean, and Greek colonists were spreading up and down the Mediterranean Sea. In 753 B.C., Rome was founded by Romulus, and the Greeks established a colony at Cuma, and in 600 B.C. the Forum was built.

Beginning in 1550 B.C., the Phoenicians were an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean, and having mastered the art of navigation, dominated the Mediterranean Sea trade for over 500 years in their galleys and invented biremes. Their sailing ventures carried them to Africa and Europe. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power existed before, during, and after Lehi set sail.

It seems obvious that any different looking and differently built sailing ship (1 Nephi 18:1-2), whose timbers were worked with “curious workmanship,” and “were not worked after the manner of men,” and whose overall building “was not after the manner of men,” would have drawn curious investigators while it was being built among a thoroughly settled area of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and would have certainly drawn a following as it proceeded across the Mediterranean on its voyage to the Land of Promise.

If no one else, certainly the Phoenicians, long experienced in open sea exploration, would have wanted to follow the Lehi Colony to see where they were going. How then can we say that the Lord kept his promise to keep the land hidden from other nations if the Lehi Colony left “via the Mediterranean Sea”?