James Warr, who claims the Land of Promise was located in
Central America, and that the Narrow Neck of Land was west of Lake Nicaragua,
claims that the massive land area to the east of the lake could not have been
breached by the Lamanites, thus making the western path by the lake easily
defensible. He states:
1. Warr: “The San Juan
River, which drains the lake and connects it with the Caribbean to the east, is
112 miles long and averages 1000 feet in width. This river is an effective
barrier which separates the land masses of Costa Rica and Nicaragua.”
So let’s take a look at the
Rio San Juan. At its head at Lake Nicaragua, it is about 600 feet across, but
downriver a few miles it narrows to as much as 250-feet around the Isla El
Cano, and 400 feet around San Francisco, 300 feet around Santa Fe, and 300 feet
again between Santa Fe and the Orange Plantation area. The point is, the river,
while it might average 1000 feet in
width, there are points far less than that as listed here. In addition, this is
not a fast moving river and could be easily crossed at these narrower points by
canoe or raft, such as indigenous natives (Lamanites) could easily have
constructed. Both sides of the river are chock-full of trees that could be
felled, tied together, and used to cross the river, especially at these narrow
points just past bends where water tends to slow in its movement.
2. Warr: “On its eastward
course to the sea, it passes through a densely forested region which is the least
inhabited area of either country. This lack of habitation is due to the
inhospitable nature of the country and climate (dense jungle, high rainfall,
high humidity and high temperatures), and to the difficulty in building and
maintaining roads."
This area, as is much of
Central America, is basically a jungle or rain forest. It is thick with trees
and exotic animals. However, as in all such areas, indigenous natives are able
to find their way through such forests and jungles and certainly an invading
army of warriors (Lamanites) bent on killing their arch enemy, could find their
way through to the north around the lake.
3. Warr: “Even in our day
no bridges span the river, no ferries cross it, and no interconnecting roads
end at its banks.”
One of the reasons, is
about half the distance of the river, on the north, is the 640,000 acre “Indio
Maiz Biological Reserve.” Access in the Reserve is limited by MARENA (the
Ministry of Natural Resources) and travelers must sign their names to walk
through the trails to admire these nature wonders. This magical Biological
Reserve is made up of mangrove estuaries, lagoons where one can fish, waterways
that wind on endlessly, and lowland forests. By law, it is closed to any
traffic, construction, building of roads, etc., but it is obviously penetrable,
and certainly by warriors of the past bent on getting around the lake.
4. Warr: “At the outlet
from Lake Nicaragua, and more so in the eastern delta region, there are vast
areas of swamp and wetlands blocking any attempt at foot travel.”
The interesting thing about
such sweeping statements is that we are talking about thousands of square miles
here, and much of it is very penetrable if one had a reason to travel there and knew how to do so. To
the west of this eastern land are rolling hills, low-grown foliage, sparse
trees and mostly dry land (see photographs below). To the eastern side of this
area is the biological reserve, which is heavy forest, even jungle, but through
which natives have moved for centuries. In the middle are some mountains. This
is all beautiful country and the pride of Nicaragua. Once peace was established
in the land recently, Nicaragua has opened up its doors to all kinds of tourist
traffic, not the least of which is this area east of Lake Nicaragua.
The image at the lower left shows hikers moving through the reserve in the eastern acreage. Other shots show the land east of the lake. Obviously, penetration through this area is very possible (Pictures provided by the Nicaragua Ministry)
5. Warr: “…it is entirely possible that in Book of Mormon times the San Juan River Basin was lower in elevation thus increasing its size as a water barrier, and possibly even featured an ocean embayment. However, this proposal is valid even with the present topography. Increasing the size of the river, and submerging the present wetlands under the Caribbean, would only enhance its potential as a barrier.”
5. Warr: “…it is entirely possible that in Book of Mormon times the San Juan River Basin was lower in elevation thus increasing its size as a water barrier, and possibly even featured an ocean embayment. However, this proposal is valid even with the present topography. Increasing the size of the river, and submerging the present wetlands under the Caribbean, would only enhance its potential as a barrier.”
As has been mentioned here before,
speculation is of little value. Without geological factors, one cannot
claim something might have been. However, even more important is that fact that
while this area east of Lake Nicaragua is even today a barrier to modern style
living, it is not now, and never has been, a barrier to indigenous native
movement. Warr might do well to study jungle and thick forest living conditions
by native peoples, even today, but especially anciently. And lastly, where an
army of warriors who know how to live off the land can move is seldom blocked
by natural geography. Even in the past centuries of warfare, soldiers with
little more than their own physical ability, have performed what seems like
miraculous fetes to surprise an enemy that believed an approach from a certain
direction could not be achieved.
After all, rivers can be crossed,
jungles and forests penetrated, mountains climbed, and “impossible” objectives
reached. Time and again history has shown us this. To consider that thousands
of square miles could not be crossed by a group of warriors bent on the total
destruction of their enemy is simply foolhardy.
It is also foolhardy to claim that the narrow neck of land is along the west of lake Nicaragua, between it and the Pacific Ocean. There are numerous other problems with this setting besides the ones listed above in answer to Warr's claim. Some of which we will discuss in future posts.
It is also foolhardy to claim that the narrow neck of land is along the west of lake Nicaragua, between it and the Pacific Ocean. There are numerous other problems with this setting besides the ones listed above in answer to Warr's claim. Some of which we will discuss in future posts.
The water in Lake Nicaragua is a very brown and silty looking (I have flown over several times). If you were to look from the west shore, you would think it was an ocean because of its size. So, yes I agree that the west shore could be seen as the narrow neck of land separating the sea east from the sea west.
ReplyDeleteThe water exits Lake Nicaragua via the San Juan river on the east side and flows from Lake Nicaragua all the way to the Atlantic Ocean (over 100 kilometers). I can easily see how it would have been possible, during Book of Mormon times, that instead of a river it could have been a large gulf of water that gradually got filled in over a couple thousand years. This is true of the Tigres and Euphrates rivers in Iraq that during biblical times entered the Persian gulf as separate rivers, but now are joined together (about 100 miles upstream) and become one single river (the Euphrates) which enters in at the head of the Persian gulf. One hundred miles of what is now land used to be water (a hundred miles of the Persian Gulf got filled in with silt and became land).
So, certainly it is possible for such silty water flowing from Lake Nicarauga could have filled in a much larger gulf that may have connected the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Nicarauga. Such a large gulf could have been considered impassable during BOM times. This would have made the narrow neck of land to be the only way to pass on dry land from the land South (we now know as Costa Rica) to the land North (current day Nicaragua).