The City of Nephi in the Land of Promise is the same area as the City of Cuzco in present day Peru. The temple site where Nephi built his temple “like unto that of Solomon” was located on the heights overlooking the Cuzco valley, today called Sacsahuaman (Saqsaywaman).Noah’s tower in the city of Nephi was “built near the temple, yea, a very high tower, even so high that he could stand upon the top thereof and overlook the land of Shilom, and also the land of Shemlon” (Mosiah 11:12).
When the Conquistadores entered the Cuzco valley in August 1533, an area 24 miles long by 9 miles wide, they saw on the heights of Sacsahuaman three towers, one much taller than the others. These towers, so magnificently made, were considered constructions of the Devil and destroyed by the Spaniards, but not until a drawing and description was made of them by one of the conquerors. A modern equivalent of that drawing appeared in a National Geographic magazine in recent years, showing the towers situated next to the temple of Sacsahuaman. The base of this tower can still be seen today.
Not until 1934 was the concentric circles of the tower base discovered in modern times. But Garcilaso de la Vega (Gomez Suarez de Figueroa), a Peruvian Viceroyaty of Peru, and historian of the Inca (known as El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega) considered to have written the most complete and accurate accounts available, wrote that the main tower was described as five stories tall, magnificently constructed of rock and mortar, and containing a peaked roof. Today, the base consists of three concentric, circular stone walls connected by a series of radial walls, with a web-like pattern of 34 lines intersects at the center and also there is a pattern of concentric circles that corresponded to the location of the circular walls.
It was in this area of Cuzco in 1463 that the Inca rose to power, obviously utilizing a series of buildings, temples, and other magnificent structures, including the fortress of Sacsahuaman, the much earlier Nephites left behind. Since at no time in the scriptural record do we find the Lamanites constructing buildings, roads, palaces, or other magnificent edifices, we must conclude that the ancient workmanship of the Andean Plateau, from Tehuantepec (Lake Titicaca) to Sacsahuaman (Cuzco) to Pachacamac (Lima) were built by the ancient Nephites.The Inca rise to power and their ability to control their empire rested in part with the buildings, roads and resorts (forts) already in existence that the Nephites built. With such an infrastructure already in place, and behind capable and expansionist emperors, the Inca took control of Cuzco and then spread outward, eventually conquering the western lands southward to Chile, and northward to Ecuador, and along the coast from Cajamarca to Nazca. This achievement over a mere 58 years is considered a remarkable accomplishment in that era and over such a widespread area—a fete that would have been doubtful had there been no roads, no structure already in existence.
This area of the Inca Empire is, of coure, the same area the Nephites and Lamanites occupied between 600 B.C. and 421 A.D., referred to as the Land of Promise in the Book of Mormon.
(See next post “The Nephites, the Lamanites and the Inca – Part III,” the lamantations of the Lamanites during the thousand years between the end of the Nephites and the end of the Inca)
Del,
ReplyDeleteHere is the newest post from Mr Potter. It flows with what you have said here.
What Modern Prophets and Apostles Have Said About Peru and the Book of Mormon, Part 2
By George Potter
In 1963 President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency visited Cuzco, Peru and made the some remarkable statements. In my book, Nephi in the Promised Land, I provide compelling evidence that Cuzco was the ancient city of Nephi. In his History of the Church in Peru, Dale Christensen writes:
February 9, 1963: President Hugh B. Brown, President and Sister Tuttle and President and Sister Nicolaysen met with the four Cuzco Elders. President Brown spoke of his concern for the future of the work in Cuzco. He gave inspired counsel about the enduring spirits of the ancient Book of Mormon Prophets who will labor with us to see that the work of the Restored Church develops in Cuzco. He spoke of the leadership yet to come from among these Lamanite people and referred to the possibility of a great leader -- even an apostle of the Lord -- being called in the future (perhaps as long hence as fifty years) from among the converts of elders now laboring in this area.
In 1963:
Soon after Elder Joseph Groberg, as a new missionary, arrived in the Andes Mission, he wrote home, "President Hugh B. Brown spoke to us. While in Cuzco, a dark feeling had come over him. He was going to suggest to the Mission President that the Elders be taken out of that area. Then, in the meeting with the Elders, he felt the presence of another person whose spirit influenced him. It was Samuel the Lamanite."
(ElderBoyd K. Packer mentioned similar impressions at the dedication of the Lima Temple site.)
From Elder Packer's book (and conference talk, I think also):
"I have been in Cuzco since that time, and now I see this people whom I held in my arms, coming to be baptized, to preach, to preside. They will find him. Some day perhaps he will be there in Cuzco in a sacrament meeting as one of the twelve chosen Apostles. He will bear witness as I bear witness, that the day of the children of Laman and Lemuel and Nephi has come, that the Book of Mormon, the voice from the dust, is true. He will bear witness as I bear special witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Dale Christensen, History of the Church in Peru (bold added)
I decided to go to Google Earth and just measure the distance between the City of Nephi and the city of Zarahemla.
ReplyDeleteWe all have a habit of calculating the distance between two cities as the crow flies. But of course this is not always possible. If I measure as the crow flies.. it is about 350 miles or 563 Kilometers from the City of Nephi to Zarahemla. Now if you ask Google to give you driving directions, it calculates a route for you based on the roads available and that route comes out to be about 1,239 Kilometers or 770 miles.
If you want to see the map.. I have uploaded a jpg file. http://abgnw.com/LDS/Route-CtyNephi-Zarahemla.jpg
If you go to Google Earth yourself.. you will see the tower at the following GPS coordinates: 13 30 32.68 S 71 58 58.35 W
Mr.N: Neither of your posted connections take me to where you said. Perhaps you wrote them in wrong.
ReplyDeleteRandy,
ReplyDeleteI just realized that from "inside" this blog.. it does not allow one to go outside of it. The work around would be to copy and paste the web address into a new browser window.
I just copied and pasted the jpg address and it worked for me.
Maybe there is another code that needs to be put in this file to allow it to open a new browser window. I tried the attribute "target" but it won't let me do that.
So just copy and paste the address into a new window.
Mr.N - got it. thanks.
ReplyDeletePaul
ReplyDeleteIt should be kept in mind that the distance from the Land of Nephi to the Land of Zarahemla would only be a fraction of the distances from both cities. Cuzco and the surrounding area is in the highlands, whereas the area to the northwest and west is flatter as you go down from the highlandsw region. The Lamanites came down to battle in the Land of Zarahemla, which might have been only a few miles across a wilderness area (narrow strip) before encountering any of the Nephite cities on the east and west which, except for one occassion, was where the Lamanites attacked. The Lamanites themselves, a people who lived in the wilderness regions (no permanent structures) might well have been very close to the narrow strip of wilderness on the border of the Land of Zarahemla; therefore, the distance into the Land of Zarahemla for their attacks might well have been very short indeed. Also, we are told in scripture that the Nephites had fair warning that the Lamanites were approaching. Very likely, this meant that they camped in the wilderness, or even inside the Land of Zarahemla, after coming down from the Land of Nephi, before launching an attack against the Nephites.
Anyway, just a thought to adjust the distances you indicated.
Del,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really trying to establish anything more than distances they had to travel to get from the City of Nephi to the City of Zarahemla. Sometimes we think the Book of Mormon had the same distances as those in the land of the Bible. It is a bit more spread out for our Book of Mormon counterparts.
Paul
ReplyDeleteExactly. And as you have pointed out, sometimes someone reads something and misconstrues it. The distance between the cities is what one might expect when trying to separate themselves from an enemy. Yet, the distances an army would travel to attack would probably be considerably less. In this case, the scriptural layout satisfies both distances which is what I was pointing out. We might also say that your 770 miles, traveling at 28 miles in a day and a half which we have earlier established for a Nephite, would take 41 days to reach Zarahemla from Cuzco (City of Nephi), which is about what the travel time of Alma and his flock, or Limhi and his people, took to reach Zarahemla from the city of Lehi-Nephi. Works out about right.