Additional Clues to the Land of Promise Location-Part II Buildings

Besides the Land of Promise location matching scriptural clues such as winds and currents moving Nephi’s ship that was “driven forth before the wind,” the temperature and climate needed to grow seeds from Jerusalem exceedingly and provide an abundant climate, locating ore deposits in abundance and contain gold, silver and copper in a single unit, finding two unknown animals that were as “useful to man” as the elephant, and two unknown grains on a par with corn, wheat and barley, natural herbs to cure deadly fever, roads and highways, forts and resorts, there are other clues in the scriptural record that also needs to be found in the Land of Promise.

One of these would be the buildings, palaces, and temples mentioned throughout the scriptural record.

Beginning with Nephi, who wrote: “And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance…and I did build a temple, and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon” (2 Nephi 5:15-16).

“Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings; and he ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper; and he also built him a spacious palace…and he built a tower near the temple, yea, a very high tower…and he caused many buildings to be built in the land of Shilom; and he caused a great tower to be built on the north of the land” (Mosiah 11:8-9, 12-14).

The temple in Zarahemla had walls about it (Mosiah 2:7), as did the city itself (Helaman 13:4; 16:1), and Moroni built walls of stone around Nephite cities and also about the land (Alma 48:8).

In addition to towns and villages, the Nephites constructed buildings (Jarom 1:8), built numerous cities (3 Nephi 6:7), with many being notable and great (3 Nephi 8:14)—the Lord himself even referred to several cities as being “great” (3 Nephi 9:3-5, 9), and they built temples in the city of Nephi, Zarahemla and Bountiful, and used iron and steel (2 Nephi 5:15)

The Jaredites also built cities (Ether 10:12), great spacious buildings (Ether 10:5) of every kind (Mosiah 8:8), and used iron (Ether 10:23) and steel (Ether 7:9).

Consequently, it would seem necessary to find in the Land of Promise today a land covered with buildings and ruins of antiquity. Three ancient peoples in the Western Hemisphere have buildings of antiquity: Aztecs (Mexico), Maya (Guatemala), and the Inca (Andean area of South America). Of these three, the most extensive and versatile are those of the Peruvian Andes. Literally, the land is honeycombed with ruins of all types.

There are temples, fortresses, cities, small forts, vast complexes, etc. These ancient cities were enormous in size, some with magnificent temples, and others with complex defensive walls and structures.