Danger of Theorizing Part XI – Warrior Class and Sophisticated Fortifications

Another of these points has to do with a warrior class of people in the Land of Promise, and sophisticated fortifications. The author of these sixteen points required to be met in order to determine a Land of Promise site, there must exist:

“(11) Warrior Society - Great Battles, Structured Armies, Sophisticated Fortifications“

The first two of these three requirement stated above could probably be found in all societies across the Western Hemisphere for seldom does one find in antiquity a peaceful people without a warrior class and structured armies of some sort. The third part, sophisticated fortifications is another matter. But let us take them one at a time.

1. Warrior Society with Great Battles. The structure of the Andean area in South America is one of continual battles of a warrior society from the most ancient of records right up to the period of the Inca before the Spanish arrived. Warfare moved back and forth across this Andean area, especially in the middle areas of Peru and southern Ecuador.

2. Great Armies. The roads that criss-cross the Andean area long held the movement of armies marching forth, dating back into B.C. times. Archaeologists have given all these different societies names, though in reality they were all Nephites or Lamanites, but show that each society they name was supplanted through war by another, strong society. This happened for at least two thousand years in the Andean area right up to 1541 when the Spanish defeated the Inca, the last of the native warrior societies.
3. Sophisticated Fortifications. Scattered all over the Andean area are both major fortresses and small, minor lookout forts (called resorts in the Book of Mormon). The Andes is a series of canyons and valleys and along almost every mountain pass, canyon wall, and hillsides overlooking where an enemy could approach, these small resorts or forts can be found.

In addition, there is a unique feature found in Peru and that is a series of fortified walls stretching from east to west across the land whose purpose, archaeologists claim, is to keep a southern enemy from gaining further ground to the north. Perhaps the most famous of these walls is dubbed “The Great Wall of Peru,” which stretches from the Pacific Ocean for a hundred miles inland, down through valleys, across river beds, and up over mountains. The wall is as high as fifteen feet in most places, but higher where it dips down into river beds, and was built with its north side easily scaleable by a defending army, but the south side is steep and slick, almost impossible to scale.

Discovered by Shippee and Johnson in 1931 in an aerial reconnaissance of Peru, most of the wall is not even observable at ground level because of the forests, mountains and riverbeds. Nor is most of it accessible because of the inhospitable terrain. Built of large rocks and mortared in place, the wall matches closely the wall that Moronihah built to successfully stop the northern advance of the Lamanits, which enabled the Nephites to then gain back much of the land to the south lost earlier.

While almost any location could boast of ancient armies, wars, and military societies—which describes the American Indians of North America as well as throughout the Western Hemisphere--the fortifications of the Andean area set apart South America as a perfect match for this point. The fortress of Kuelap (shown here) is a most convincing fortress built for defense, as is the fortress of Sacsahuaman above Cuzco.
In fact, while most cities now viewed in Mesoamerica were obviously not built for serious defense, just about every structure in the Andean area of South America shows a strong defensive purpose in its construction. In fact, most archaeologists who have worked on the ruins in the Andea area have commented on how the temples, palaces, cities, etc., were all built with strong defenses—more so than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.