The City Where Lehi Lived and Land of Promise Construction -- Part I

There has been much discussion lately by Great Lakes, Hill Cumorah, Zarahemla in Iowa, Eastern U.S., Heartland, and numerous other Land of Promise Theorists that ignore one simple fact about locating the Nephite homeland in 580 B.C. to 400 A.D., and that is the buildings they would have left behind.

Numerous U.S. theorists claim the Hopewell Indian mounds, and mounds of other Indians, from the Mississippi Valley to Ohio and the Great Lakes region, were the remains of the magnificent building capability of the Nephite nation. They ignore the building materials and ability that Nephi, who had been taught directly by the Lord, achieved in the building of his Temple and city in the Land of Nephi (2 Nephi 5:15-16) along with the numerous other temples, synagogues, and sanctuaries built over a thousand years throughout the Land of Promise.

Consider what Nephi and Sam had been exposed to before they left the area of Jerusalem:

1. A 230-foot long, 20-foot high stone wall complex containing an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the Kidron valley recently discovered was built 400 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

2.  Solomon’s stone Temple built over 350 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

3.  Solomon built his palace and several other important buildings in Jerusalem about 330 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

4  Jersualem had 5,000 inhabitants 325 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

5.  Jerusalem had 25,000 inhabitants 125 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

6. The stone outer walls of Jerusalem were strengthened and enlarged 122 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

7.  Jerusalem covered 150 acres 120 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.

8.  Kings and Queens and other world leaders had made pilgrimages to Israel to see Solomon’s temple and other edifices built in this city that became the religious capital of the entire area long before Lehi left Jerusalem..

Now, consider that these two young men were responsible to design and build a city in the Land of Nephi, to build a temple to the Lord, and to build other edifices that any city required. Also, since they had escaped with their lives, consider that they would have built tall and strong defensive walls around their city to protect them against their brothers who threatened to kill them—walls that would have resembled in some degree those they had known around Jerusalem.

When Samuel the Lamanite returned to the city of Zrahemla to preach to the wicked Nephites, he climbed upon the city wall where Nephite soldiers tired to kill him with arrow shots. Obviously, these walls had to be made of something solid, with a top capable of standing upon, which would eliminate any type of wood palisade of the type found in the Hopewell Indian mounds and defensive wood walls.

Now the question begs—would we not expect to find some evidence of these strong stone walls, stone buildings, stone temples, synagogues, palaces, and sanctuaries somewhere in a land claimed to be where the Book of Mormon Land of Promise took place? After all, stone structures last for thousands of years. And while there are no such structures found anywhere in North America, two places in the Western Hemisphere have such ancient building sites in abundance—the Andean area of Peru, Ecuador and northern Chile in South America, and also the area of Mesoamerica in Central America.

Cities constructed of stone throughout Peru in the Andean area of South America, similar to the city of Jerusalem in construction, with temple centers and vast structures