Nephite Defensive Sites Built at the End of Their Nation

Following the advent of the Savior among the Nephites, and the nearly two hundred “golden years” of progress that followed when there were no more “-ites” among them (4 Nephi 1:17), and the people prospered and built up cities (4 Nephi 1:7) as there was no contention among all the people, in all the land, there became a great division among the people. Once again, when 244 years had passed away, they divided into Nephites and the Lamanites (4 Nephi 1:35-38), and children were taught to hate those who believed in God, even as the Lamanites were taught to hate the children of Nephi from the beginning (4 Nephi 1:39). And “when three hundred years had passed away, both the people of Nephi and the Lamanites had become exceedingly wicked one like unto another” (4 Nephi 1:45).
    Now during these last fifty years or so, there were certain Nephites who, evidently seeing a future return to being attacked by the Lamanites, sought to build up cities and defenses as Moroni had once done. At least in the area of the Nephite held lands of Andean Peru, particularly toward the north of the Land Southward, cities were built for defenses with one purpose in mind and that was to guard the inhabitants from attacks from the south.

The mountain top fortress of Kuélap in northern Peru

One of those cities we have written about before, hidden amid the cloud forest near the ancient city of Chachapoyas, was Kuélap (Cuélap). A completely encircled, walled city on top of a limestone ridge on a mountain top with a 360-degree commanding view of the entire Utcubamba Valley in northern Peru. The site was known by nearby villagers for generations, though not “discovered” by the archaeological world until 1843 when a city judge named Juan Crisóstomo Nieto encountered it.
    The massive complex features colossal exterior stone walls surrounding more than four hundred buildings, with only three narrow entrances that run inward for hundreds of feet, narrowing to allow the passage of only a single person. The structure above the Utcubamba River is roughly 2000-feet in length and 360-feet in width, and believed to have been occupied in the latter part of the second century A.D.—with continual occupancy until the Early Colonial period of the Spanish occupation.

Left: Kuélap’s single 60-foot high outer wall; Right: Marcahuamachuco’s 40-foot high outer wall, of which there are two such outer walls that surround the complex

Another such city built around this time, and only recently “discovered,” was the defensively walled city of Marcahuamachuco (Markawamachuko, Marca Huamachuco) in the La Libertad region of northern Peru near Huamachuco at an altitude of 12,000 feet elevation. Though less well-known than other sites because of its nearly inaccessible location in the highlands of northern Peru, it is considered significant and has been referred to by archaeologists as the “Machu Picchu of the North” and "The Jewel of La Libertad.”
    According to Theresa Lange, “The complex is set atop the nexus of three mountain valleys, encompassing more than 590 acres on two square miles of land. Huge by ancient standards, the rugged ruins of the site are celebrated for its massive five-story high castillos (castle or fortified buildings), multi-storied galleries housing numerous individual families, and unique circular enclosures known as monjas, all encircled by double-walled archaeological structures” ("The Meaning of Monuments at Marcahuamachuco," 55th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans: April, 1991).

Pachacamac being Zarahemla, and Cuzco being Nephi, we find a strong defensive string of ancient sites along the coast from Chimbote to Piura, and the defensive mountain top sites in northcentral Peru—while the Inca much later defeated the central cultures after an extensive and --- battles, they never conquered the coastal region

The interesting aspect of both these mountain top cities, and others in this northern region, is the remarkable defensive nature of their construction, beginning with massive stone walls completely enclosing the interior complex. Kuélap’s unscalable walls are 60-feet in height, and those of Marchuamachuco are 40-feet high. While Marchuamachuco was compared to Cajamarca by McCown and other sites in Chachapoya territory, Kuélap’s strategic location high above the main river covering the approach into the east and north, the site of Marchuamachuco, when first visited by the pioneer archaeologist and doctor, Ernst Wilhelm Middendorf in 1887, compared it to Kuélap, and archaeologist Hans Horkheimer photographed stone heads there that were similar to those found in Chavin, a B.C. culture to the south (Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, Andean Archaeology II, Kluwer Academic/Phenum Publishers, 2002, p150; Ernst Wihelm Middendorf, Peru Vol. III, Das Hochland, Berlin, 1895).
    In fact, a survey taken by American Paleoantropologist and University Professor at U.C. Berkeley, Theodore Downey McCown, (Project 9A of the Institute of Andean Research) in 1945 that extended from the “Chimu coast” at Trujillo (near Chan Chan), along the Rio Moche eastward, crossed the divide to the Marañon drainage and was concentrated in the Huamachuco district, about 62 miles from the coast, including northward nearly to the Rio Crisnejas, and including the Cajabamba district.
    This survey showed that most of the sites encountered in this highland region were located on high hills and ridges, difficult to access [difficult for an enemy to attack]. In fact, Marchuamachuco, which is grouped with truly fortified sites, is considered the epitome of a fortified city (Jonathan Haas, Shelia Pozorski, Thomas Pozorski, The Origins and Development of the Andeaan State, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1987, p50).
    In addition, Dr. McCown states that “Among the many ruined stone buildings, forts, and walls often in combination with terraces, to be seen in the region, the great site of Marca Huamachuco is outstanding. Here a complex system of heavy, defense walls, rectangular and round structures, extends for over two-and-a-half miles along a high ridge dominating the surrounding countryside” (Theodore D. McCown, The Pre-Incaic Site of Huamachuco, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol39, No4, 1945, pp223-346).

Marchuamachuco and its satellite sites with its celebrated massive Castillo (castle) and unique circular double-walled archaeological structures that date from between 200 and 400 A.D. in the northern highlands of Peru

There were well-built structures of coursed rubble masonry using the “gallery” as the basic form—long narrow, rectangular or circular buildings with high, extremely thick parallel walls from 32 to 40 feet high, extending upward two or three stories.
    While no direct evidence could be found, the construction suggested an earlier occupation as though the area was being reinforced and added to the well-built galleries and forts, sometimes directly overlying the earlier structures or re-using part of older walls.
    Two miles to the east another fortress, Viracochapampa, was built in a square with a plaza, almost exactly in the center of the square and surrounded by buildings beyond which lie fields within the outer walls.

Marcahuamachuco with a commanding view of the region and overlooking the Utcubamba River far below. Note the double walls of each complex

It might be of importance to keep in mind that in the Book of Mormon, sometime just before, or during the early days of the final Lamanite attacks, when the Nepihtes were being pushed northward from the area of the Waters of Sidon, the Nephites began retreating. Beginning around 327 A.D. “the Lamanites did come upon us with exceedingly great power, insomuch that they did frighten my armies; therefore they would not fight, and they began to retreat towards the north countries” (Mormon 2:3). Assuming that the Waters of Sidon were in the same location as the River Sidon mentioned earlier in the record, we can estimate that this battle began in the far south of the Land of Zarahemla, near the narrow strip of wilderness, probably by the eastern lands since that river ran by the borders of the Land of Zarahemla (Alma 2:15), and perhaps along the Valley of Gideon (Alma 6:7).
    The battles then moved northward, toward the “north countries” (Mormon 2:3) where these fortress-cities were located. The fact that Mormon does not spend much time on details of these battles that eventually drove the Nephites clear to the Land Northward, leaves open many questions as to where these ongoing battles took place. As an example, Mormon states that when they reached the city of Angola, they “took possession of the city and made preparations to defend it” and in so doing “we did fortify the city with our might.”
    In 1828 dictionary, fortify is defined as: “To surround with a wall, ditch, palisades or other works, with a view to defend against the attacks of an enemy; to strengthen and secure by forts, batteries and other works.” The word fortify is also used in Mormon 2:21, when the Nephites “did fortify the city of Shem, and we did gather in our people as much as it were possible, that perhaps we might save them from destruction,” and also in 3 Nephi 3:14,25: “And he caused that fortifications should be built round about them, and the strength thereof should be exceedingly great,” and “they did fortify themselves against their enemies.”
    Such fortifying of existing defensive walls and fortifications has already been shown to have taken place in the northern highlands of Peru around this time—whether or not the two are the same is unknown, but surely it demands a consideration.