20)
Temples. After escaping from his two older brothers and the
sons of Ishmael, Nephi and his people built a temple in the Land of Nephi. It
was like Solomon’s, but did not contain as much finery, but the construction
was a high level of quality (2 Nephi 5:16). Since Nephi would have seen and
known much or all about Solomon’s Temple, and that it was built out of stone,
and has stood for some three thousand years, two things should be self evident:
1) Nephi would have built his temple as much like Solomon’s as he could, which
obviously would have included stonework, and 2) After about 2500 years, there
should certainly be evidence of its existence today. Lastly, the scriptural record tell us
that Nephi’s temple was built in the City of Nephi, that a temple was also built in Zarahemla (Mosiah
1:18), and another in Bountiful (3 Nephi 11:1). In addition to finding many
temples throughout the Land of Promise, we might want to consider what were the
"precious things" that could not be included in Nephi's temple like
unto Solomon's? Certainly not wood,
iron, copper, brass, steel, gold, silver, and precious ores, for Nephi had all
of these in abundance and taught his people to work with each of them (2 Nephi
5:15).
Obviously,
as Nephi stated, the temple was a magnificent edifice and though it might have
lacked some of the unique items of Solomon's, Nephi's temple was built with all
sorts of precious ores and outstanding smithy and construction skills. Thus, the Land of Promise should have some
edifices that show such workmanship and use of those precious ores that Nephi
described. And they should be the first
temples built in the Western Hemisphere, a land the Lord had saved as a Land of
Promise for those He would lead to it (Ether 13:2,8). In addition, the Nephites
built many temples (Helaman 3:20) that were obviously scattered throughout the
land.
Today, in all of the Western Hemisphere, only two
locations show stonework structures of magnificent proportions, construction,
engineering and accomplishment—obviously something Nephi would have been proud
to build to his God. Those two areas are in the Peruvian area of South America,
and also in Mesoamerica. There is no place in all of North America where any
such stone structure has ever been found. According to archaeologists the first
temples built in the Americas were built in pre-Inca Peru, which became the
prototype of the pyramid temples later erected throughout Mexico and Central
America. These temples, of course, followed the pattern found in the Old World,
such as the temple towers (ziggurats) of Palestine, Mesopotamia, and early Egypt,
which are identical in design and purpose to those of the Americas. In all
instances the purpose was to furnish a high place for worship. The pyramid
structures are truncated at the top to provide space for a temple and the
slopes are generally terraced, providing symmetrical design.
The temple grounds that remain of
Kalasasaya at Tiahuanaco south of Lake Titicaca covered five acres and was
indicative of the magnificent temple structures that once stood along the
Peruvian landscape. This temple had a vast sunken courtyard and subterranean
rooms. The huge blocks of the actual temple were carted off to build a railroad
and individual structures by the Peruvians more than a century ago
The
Temple of the Sun in Cuzco, Peru, is built in this manner, with the walls of
finely cut blocks laid in courses without cement. Many of these pre-Inca stones were sheathed
in gold and silver, and the rooms and gardens of the temples contained marvels
of goldsmith and silversmith art. No doubt, this is the finest mason's work in
the world. Incas knew nothing regarding its origins, for the stupendous
stonework of Cuzco belongs to a period long before them. These pre-Inca peoples
built magnificent temples in the Titicaca basin, and a temple was built around
500 B.C. at Chavin. This temple has remarkable mason work and the walls are
alternating courses of large and small dressed stones that were cut with
precision.
Top: Huallamarca Pyramid near
Pachacamac on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, dates from 200 B.C.; Bottom: ChanChan,
a city
composed of ten walled citadels which housed ceremonial rooms, burial chambers,
temples, reservoirs and some residences. Chan Chan is a triangular city
surrounded by walls 50–60 feet high
21)
“And there were some who died with fevers,
which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land -- but not so
much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and
roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were
subject by the nature of the climate” (Alma 46:40). In 200 B.C., there was
no name for the deadly fever known to Alma when he wrote that; however, today
we call it malaria, which has been the subject of research for medical
practitioners from time immemorial. Many ancient texts, especially medical
literature, mention various aspects of malaria and even of its possible link
with mosquitoes and insects. Early man, confronting the manifestations of
malaria, attributed the fevers to supernatural influences, the ancient Chinese
believed it to be the work of three demons. The connection between malaria and
swamps was known even in antiquity and the evil spirits or malaria gods were
believed to live within the marshes. An old script of Babylonia attributed the
fever to Nergal, the god of
destruction and pestilence, pictured as a double-winged, mosquito-like insect.
In 800 B.C., the Indian sage Dhanvantari wrote that bites of mosquitoes could
causes diseases, fever, shivering etc.
Hippocrates was probably the first malariologist in 400 B.C., when he described
the various malaria fevers of man. The Charaka Samhita written about 300
B.C., classified the fevers into five different categories, namely continuous
fevers, remittent fevers, quotidian fevers, tertian fevers and quartan fevers. Susruta Samhita, written about
100 B.C., associated fevers with the bites of the insects. Malaria has been
with man for millennia; however, in all this time, many thousands of years,
there has never been a cure known to man other than what was found in the
Andean region of Peru, in a tree called cinchona,
whose bark contained what is today called quinine. Nowhere else has this plant
ever been found outside of the Andean area until the Dutch stole clippings and
planted them in Indonesia in the 1700s. This plant is clearly the cure Alma
wrote about, for when the Europeans came, they brought back the bark to Europe
where it became a wildly successful cure for not only the fever of malaria, but
numerous other maladies and diseases.
These
five posts and twenty-one points are not meant to convey the only things that could be used to single
out the location of the Land of Promise. There are other things, of course, and some that are not exactly
spelled out in the Book of Mormon, such as circumcision, irrigation, etc., that
are found in the Andean area of South America and not to that degree anywhere
else in the Western Hemisphere—but the 21 items listed in these three posts are
taken specifically from the scriptural record and scriptures are used to
illustrate them. Many of these items are unique to South America, others are
found elsewhere to some degree, but not as they are in the Andean area.
Historians, theorists, and others can say whatever they choose about a Land of
Promise location, but in all reality, only South America matches ALL the
descriptions found in the Book of Mormon. In the following several posts, more
of this type of information will be presented, suggesting members might want to
compare their ideas, feelings and beliefs about the Land of Promise location
with the actual scriptural record. If it isn’t in the Book of Mormon, then that
location is not the Land of Promise!
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