“The Nephites and the armies of Moronihah were driven even into the land of Bountiful; and there they did fortify against the Lamanites, from the west sea, even unto the east; it being a day's journey for a Nephite, on the line which they had fortified and stationed their armies to defend their north country” (Helaman 4:6-7). Now three things need to be understood in the 57th year of the reign of the judges:
• The Nephites were driven out of the Land of Zarahemla by the Lamanites all the way to the land that was near Bountiful (Helaman 4:5);
• The Nephites were even driven into the Land of Bountiful (Helaman 4:6);
• Once into the Land of Bountiful, the Nepihtes built a wall or defensive position that was long enough that it would take a day for a Nephi to walk its length (Helaman 4:7).
Red
line: the border between the Land of Desolation and the Land of Bountiful,
spoken of as a “line” in Alma 22:31-32;
50:11)
The first line was within the Land of Bountiful, the second line was along the border between the Land of Bountiful and the Land of Desolation. The first line was “a fortified line” and the second was a “border” or line separating two lands (Bountiful and Desolation).
Mormon clearly states these differences:
1. When abridging Alma’s record, Mormon came across the statement of the Lamanite king sending a proclamation throughout all his land—at this point Mormon inserts a lengthy description of the king’s land and where it was located and how it butted up against the Nephite lands. After describing the Land of Nephi and a narrow strip of wilderness running from the Sea West to the Sea East between the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla, Mormon then shows that the Nephite lands went northward to Bountiful and the Land of Desolation beyond in the Land Northward—which evidently the Nephites had not yet entered early in Alma’s time.
Mormon then describes a narrow or small neck of land running between Bountiful and Desolation, separating the Land Southward from the Land Northward. He refers to this border as a line, the width of the narrow neck being the length of a day-and-a-half’s journey for a Nephite. This, by the way, was the same border or line used by Mormon in the truce
While this line is described as a boundary dividing two lands, it has not been suggested that it was defensive line or one that was fortified. This line was also used by Mormon when working out a treaty with the Lamanites in the final days of the Nephite Nation (Mormon 2:28).
Moroni fortifying
Nephite cities
Thirty-six years after this astounding success, other Nephite dissenters joined the Lamanites and stirred them up to war (Halaman 4:4). When the Nephites were driven out of the Land of Zarahemla toward Bountiful (Helaman 4:6) by overwhelming numbers, Moronihah, having learned from his father's achievements, fortified a line "from the west sea unto the east," a distance of a day's journey for a Nephite (Helaman 4:7).
Along this fortified line, the Nephites stationed their armies to defend their north country since the Lamanites then occupied all the land to the south (Helaman 4:8). This fortification must have been successful in turning back the Lamanites because we find that the Nephites were driven no further north, and from there Moronihah fought his way south and obtained many parts of the land and many cities which the Lamanites had captured (Helaman 4:9). Moronihah eventually recaptured half of the Nephite's original lost territory (Helaman 4:10).
Thus, in the Land of Promise there should be a fortification that runs along a line for quite some distance—a fortification that is so constructed as to keep an invading army at bay, a fortification that can be defended by an army of smaller size strung out along its length, a fortification that is intertwined with the landscape that would be a strong deterrent, a fortification that starts on the west coast and moves along a straight line to the east, and a fortification of such magnitude that it would protect not only the homeland, but keep an invading army from breaching its walls and getting behind and into the north country.
And such a fortification is found in South America.
Called the Muralla Chimu, or Great Wall of Peru runs from the sea
inland between Huambacho and Chimbote
The first five or six miles inland the Wall has been destroyed and the rocks have been carried off by locals for other building with the buildings and the remnant covered by sand.
Today the wall runs into the interior for about 100 miles, beginning at a demolished village, itself all but lost beneath centuries of drifting sand, and leads away up the north side of the Santa River, across the level sandy plain of the river's delta, then up over the bordering foothills where the valley narrows (Victor Wolfgang von Hagen, The Royal Road of the Inca, Gordon & Cremonesi, London, 1976, p156a, Fig 65).
As the foothill ridges become sharper and steeper, the Wall rises and dips and in places is turned slightly from its generally straight course. Its distance from the river is about a mile and a half, though in one place it dips down close to the edge of the river bed. In places the wall blends in so well with the background as to be almost indistinguishable (Leo Deuel, Conquistadors Without Swords, St. Martin's, New York, 1967, p 71).
According to von Hagen, this wall was built by the ancestors of the pre-Inca Chimu, and was intended for defense—to stop incursions into the north by southern tribes. According to Deuel, along its length there were circular and rectangular forts at irregular intervals on both sides of the wall, and most were inset on the top of small hills so as to be quite invisible from the valley floor.
Von Hagen states that of the fourteen forts overall, the larger ones were located on the south side of the river opposite the wall, with the largest fort being about 300 feet by 200 feet with walls fifteen feet high and five feet thick. Some were of piled stone construction while others were adobe.
The Wall in a sad state of repair and only half as high as it once was
The Wall winds its way from the sea, over the low mountain-spurs parallel to the Santa river, and up into the sierra 90 miles away where further passage northward was blocked by steep mountains. In the higher areas, where rain does occasionally fall, terraces were fashioned from the near-perpendicular mountainsides, and earth and fertilizer transported there over considerable distances.
The terraces were then used for a readily-available source of food supply for the wall's defenders, who occupied the many lookout posts and strategically placed, enormous fortresses, which were built of stone blocks carefully fitted together without mortar. To the south is another wall which was part of the outer defenses of the Great Wall.
This wall was not discovered until 1931 when, quite by accident, Robert Shipee and Lt. Johnson saw and photographed it from the air. Before then, no one knew of, or even suspected, its existence, with even local residents unfamiliar with the Wall.
Thus, we need to understand that the line between Bountiful and Desolation is a boundary line on the northern border of the Land of Bountiful, while the line which they had fortified is another line entirely, somewhere in the Land of Bountiful
Yet another perfect match for the Andean model.
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