Gulf of Tehuantepec vs. the Narrow Neck in the Land of Promise

Continuing with the problems facing the Isthmus of Tehuantepec being the Narrow Neck of Land, Mesoamerican Theorists like to point out that the Olmec and the Early Formative people of this area were equivalent to the Jaredites. However, there are many of their ruins on both sides of the isthmus—that is, in their Land Northward as well as in their Land Southward. The problem is, the Jaredites were never in the Land Southward, they did not build cities south of the narrow neck, instead, they kept that land for an animal preserve (Ether 10:21).
Geographically, this narrow neck as described in the Book of Mormon, was the only land mass that connected the Land of Bountiful in the Land Southward to the Land of Desolation in the Land Northward (Alma 22:32). Obviously, this narrow neck or narrow passage or narrow pass, was the only means by which movement from the Land Southward to the Land Northward was achieved (Mormon 3:5). It was such a topographical feature that it was both important to guard to keep the Lamanites from moving into the Land Northward (Mormon 3:6)—suggesting there was no other way into that land from the south—and it was defensible against a larger military force. It was also such a small boundary—one that marked the separation from the Land Southward from the Land Northward—that the Lamanites and Nephites agreed upon it as the dividing line between the two nations in a truce they signed around 350 AD (Mormon 2:29).

On the northern boundary of this narrow neck, the Jaredites built a city—no doubt the same city the Nephites called Desolation (Ether 10:20; Mormon 3:7); and on the western boundary of this narrow neck of land Hagoth built his shipyards (Alma 63:5); and on the southern boundry of the narrow neck was the Land Bountiful (Alma 22:32). Now this Land of Bountiful went “even from the east unto the west sea” (Alma 22:33). Many theorists try to claim this did not mean from the east sea to the west sea, however, the boundary of the Land Northward (Desolation) and the Land Southward (Bountiful) extended from sea to sea since the Land Southward was “surrounded by water” except for the narrow neck of land (Alma 22:32), which should suggest that the narrow neck of land ran from the sea east to the sea west (Alma 50:34).

Different theorists have played havoc with this understanding because they have had to fit the concept into a model that is not accurate. Some have tried to claim the narrow neck, narrow passage or pass were different topographical features, however, this cannot be true since all three are described as serving the same purpose, a separation between the Land Southward and the Land Northward—and since there is only one narrow neck of land to separate these lands, all three phrases are used to describe the same feature. As an example, when Mormon agreed to a treaty whereby the Nephites got the Land Northward and the Lamanites took possession of all the Land Southward, Mormon wrote: “And the Lamanties did give unto us the land northward, yea even to the narrow passage which led into the land southward’ (Mormon 2:29). Also, Mormon wrote: “I did cause my people that they should gather themselves together at the land Desolation, to a city which was in the borders, by the narrow pass which led into the land southward” (Mormon 3:5). In both these passages, Mormon describes the same topographical location—the narrow neck just south of the Land of Desolation—by using the phrases “narrow passage” and also the “narrow pass” to describe this area usually referred to as the narrow neck of land.
Simply put, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec does not qualify, nor is it possible for it to qualify, as the narrow neck of land. As one blogger has written: “The line between the lands Bountiful and Desolation was a position that required specific fortifications…there is nowhere in Mesoamerica or Central America (including the Isthmus of Panama), where a person could have traveled from ocean to ocean, through dense jungles and over mountains, in one to one and one-half days.”

I wholeheartedly agree.