The Great Mesoamerican Hoax- Part II – The Small Neck of Land

Continuing with the previous post about the great hoax of Mesoamerica being the location for the Land of Promise, we come to Mormon’s description of the narrow neck of land, one of the prominent features in the scriptural record.

“And now, it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; 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 neck of land in the Mesoamerican model is 144 miles across, which is hardly a day and a half journey for an average man; in addition, not only does the narrow neck run north and south instead of east and west, while on a map, or from a satellite photo, the narrowing of this area is noticeable, there is little chance that a person from a ground level line-of-site view would know it is a narrow area. Consider the distance of this narrow neck is the same as the distance from Salt Lake City to Fillmore, and half the distance from Salt Lake City to St. George

Thus, the layout of the land of promise was basically divided into two main sections, the Land Northward and the Land Southward, with the Land Southward, which contained the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla, nearly surrounded by water except for a small neck of land between them.

So let’s dispel the idea of an isthmus, such as Mesoamerica. The Land Southward was “nearly surrounded by water" (Alma 22:32). So if the Land Southward was nearly surrounded by water, what kept it from being completely surrounded by water? Mormon gives us only one object that kept the land from being completely surrounded by water, and that was a “small neck of land” that connected the Land Southward with the Land Northward (Alma 22:32). Now for the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla (which at this time included the Land of Bountiful clear to the narrow neck of land) to be nearly surrounded by water except for this narrow neck in the north, this means that there was no extension of land to the south of the Land of Nephi—it was surrounded by water!

To further indicate this, we are also told by Mormon that the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla both stretched from the East Sea to the West Sea (Alma 22:27), as did the narrow strip of wilderness that ran between them (Alma 22:27). When we consider two additional comments, the one already stated that the Land Southward was nearly surrounded by water, and the other, a comment Jacob made forty years after leaving Jerusalem (2 Nephi 5:34) to a gathering of the Nephites (2 Nephi 6:1), which Nephi recorded on his plates, in describing their new land to the gathered Nephites: “And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20.

Now, by its very nature, an isle or island is surrounded by water. That is, an isle is “a tract of land surrounded by water embosomed in the ocean.”

In addition, this sea to the south of the Land of Nephi is also verified in the words of Helaman: “They did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east” (Helaman 3:8). In this one sentence, Helaman writes “from the land southward to the land northward…from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east.”

So how can Mesoamerica qualify as the Land of Promise when it does not meet even the simplest of criteria?

“And thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward” (Alma 22:33). Obviously, the Land of Nephi is to the south, and the narrow neck of land is to the north.

One look at Mesoamerica again tells us that it does not meet any of this simple criteria.

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is around 120 miles as the crow flies, but passage through the Isthmus is figured at 144 miles by the Mexican government. Note the topography of this location. Any Nephi walking across this area would be climbing and descending much of the way—impossible to do in a matter of a day and a half as Mormon states

Finally, we look at the width of this small neck of land. Mormon makes it quite clear that this neck was between the Land Southward and the Land Northward, and that it was a dividing line between the two lands (Alma 22:32). “Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful” (Alma 22:31), and as to its width: “And now, it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; 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).

So why is Mormon telling us the distance across this small neck of land? Since he has not told us the distance of any other area in the Land of Promise, why here? It must be because he is not only describing the Land of Promise at this point, but also showing us how the Nephites and the Lamanites were divided and how the Nephites had hemmed in the Lamanites to the south. And in so doing, he is showing us that: “Now this is wisdom in the Nephites—as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country whither they might flee, according to their desires” (Alma 22:34).

So Mormon is letting us know two things: 1) The Lamanites were hemmed in so they could not harass the Nephites except from the south, and 2) that the Nephites had a land (the Land Northward) into which they could retreat if the Lamanites ever overwhelmed them from the south.

Now in order for us, the future reader, to understand why this Land Northward was a safe haven for the Nephites, he lets us know there was a small neck of land which they could easily guard, and that it was not very wide so it could be protected. To do this, Mormon chooses a circumstance he believes would not only be accurate in his day, but accurate in any future day, and that was how far an average man could walk in a known time. “Now, it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea” (Alma 22:32), a statement that tells us the width across this small neck, from the east to the west, and that it could be walked by an average man in approximately 18 hours of daylight (in about 100 B.C., there were no artificial lights and travel at night was not undertaken).

So we can see that the distance across the width of this small neck of land was what an average man could walk in a day and a half. Much has been written on this website showing that an average man could walk about 3 miles an hour for a short time, but probably not more than 1.5 miles an hour over a prolonged period of time like 12 hours. Though Mesoamericanists want to tell us how far a Zuni Indian could run in a day, or how long it took the Greek soldier messenger, Pheidippides, to run between Marathon and Athens with a message of the battle, Mormon does not indicate any special ability of the Nephite in this manner. In fact, if he meant a special ability, it would defeat his example in letting us know how wide was the small neck.

A day and a half, averaging about 1.5 miles per hour, equates to about 27 miles. Factor in skirting ravines, crossing hills, walking on rocky ground, etc., it might even be a little less.

Whatever the exact distance one thing is certain, it is not the 144 miles across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mesoamerica. Across this distance, even walking for 36 straight hours, it would still require an average of just over four miles per hour. Try going out one day and walking even 6 hours and average 4 miles per hour. It simply cannot be done by the average man.

Consequently, in these three simple examples of Mormon’s descriptions of the Land of Promise, in not a single stretch of the imagination could Mesoamerica qualify for being the location.

However, beginning back with Hugh Nibley, and championed by John L. Sorenson, and running through a score of writers and their models, Mesoamerica has been fostered on people as the lands of the Book of Mormon.

No greater hoax has been perpetrated since the infamous Piltdown Man. Surely, Mormon never intended his writing to be so mis-treated or mis-understood!