Mormon’s Description of a Narrow Pass or Passage

Mesoamerican theorists, Joseph Allen, who wrote the book: “Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon,” and also set up a business taking tours through Mesoamerica, has written (p 279):

“The term narrow pass refers to the width of the pass between two mountain ranges rather than to the length or distance of the pass from ocean to ocean.”

First, while the distance of the pass is not known from the scriptural record, we know that on either side of the pass ran the two seas, the East Sea and the West Sea (Alma 52:34). The pass itself did not run “from ocean to ocean,” but rather from the Land Southward to the Land Northward (Alma 50:33-34). What ran from sea to sea was the narrow neck of land (Alma 22:32;63:5), through which ran the narrow pass or passage (Mormon 2:29).

Three types of passes are shown. (Left) a Mountain Pass, (Center) a pass along a ridge, and (Right) a pass through impassable jungle or forest growth

Secondly, we do not know that this pass or passage ran between two mountain ranges, though that might be assumed. Yet, in Joseph Smith’s time, the word “pass” was defined as “a narrow passage” “a narrow or difficult place of entrance” “a road or avenue,” and the word “passage” was defined as “a place where men or things may pass or be conveyed.” Obviously, then, the terrain of the small or narrow neck of land allowed for a single area where men could pass through it from the Land Southward to the Land Northward. This might have been because of mountains, a canyon, the seas on both sides, cliffs, or some other obstruction that ran either north and south with the neck of land, or crosswise from sea to sea. In any event, there seems to have been a single passage or pass through the narrow neck of land.

Allen also claims it was the narrow pass that divided the land Northward from the land Southward, not the narrow neck of land:

“The Book of Mormon requirements for the narrow neck of land/narrow pass is that it divided the land southward from the land northward” (pp 280-281).

While it is true that the “small” or “narrow neck of land” separated the Land Southward from the Land Northward, the pass is not so described. The narrow neck is used as a topography description (of the land) while the pass or passage is described as a means of movement (from one land to the other).

Allen also claims this pass ran crosswise from sea to sea, cutting off the land. However, the scriptures refute that concept: "And 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." (Alma 22:32) The narrow pass is never mentioned in connection of the topography, only with the movement. Thus, it was not a narrow pass, especially one that ran "crosswise from the east sea to the west sea," that separated the land Northward from the Land Southward, but a narrow neck of land. Without this narrow neck of land, the sea would have completed surrounded the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla.”

Statue erected to Huanyna Capac and the battle he fought in the pass east of the Bay of Guayaquil

It is interesting that in the Andean area of South America, there is both a descriptive area of topography for a narrow neck of land, and a pass for movement through the narrow neck of land from the land to the south to the land to the north. This area is the Bay of Guayaquil. At one time in antiquity, before the Andes rose up, the distance from the east shore of the Bay to the Atlantic shore was a very short distance of about 26 miles. This fits the description of the narrow neck of land described prior to the crucifixion of the Savior. However, after that time, when the mountains rose up “whose height is great,” a small neck is never mentioned again in the scriptural record, but the pass or passage is (Mormon 2:29). And after the mountains rose up, the distance from the east shore of the Bay of Guayaquil to the sharp, impassable Andes mountains remained at about 26 miles. Through this area after the cataclysm described in 3 Nephi, a pass is mentioned in the history of Peru/Ecuador, with an ancient pass that later became a famous Inca battleground and called the Pass of Huanyna Capac, which crosses through this narrow area from the south to the north.