Value of the High Mountains in the Land of Promise – Part I

The first thing Lehi’s colony needed when they reached the Land of Promise was shelter for the families and children. Consequently, their first act was to pitch their tents (1 Nephi 18:23). This would have been a day-long effort because of the size and weight of the Bedouin-style tents.

A Bedouin-style tent. They were large containing several rooms inside

Once up, these tents would have provided all the living conditions needed, for their living in tents would have been no different than their living in tents for the past eight years in the wilderness before sailing to the Land of Promise.

Once their shelter and living conditions were accomplished, they needed a constant means of food production. For a short time the food they brought with them and the meat and fish they could hunt and catch would have been sufficient. However, to meet their long-term constant needs, they would have found a fresh water source—probably a river or stream, then set about tilling the ground and planting their seeds “brought from the land of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 18:24).

After that they did a little exploring of the land (1 Nephi 18:25). At this point it must have been a time of relaxing for Nephi was commanded to make plates and duplicate the writing already engraven on the plates of Lehi (1 Nephi 19:1-2), and then add to them what took place in the Land of Promise (1 Nephi 19:4).

Sometime over the next few years, Lehi died (2 Nephi 4:12), and the persecution against Nephi by his elder brothers and the sons of Ishmael increased until they threatened his life (2 Nephi 5:4) and the Lord warned Nephi to flee into the wilderness with all those who would go with him (2 Nephi 5:5). They took their tents and possessions (2 Nephi 5:7) and seeds (2 Nephi 5:11) and the records and the Liahona (2 Nephi 5:12).

Nephi and those with him—those who trusted in the Lord and willing to follow a chosen leader of the Lord—traveled in the wilderness for “many days” until they came to a land where the Liahona would have guided them.

Nephi fled from his brothers with all those who would go with him

There is some controversy among theorists over how far they traveled—some consider this to be a short distance, as in the models of Mesoamerica and the Great Lakes in North America, and others consider it longer, such as in the Heartland model of what is now the United States.

It should be noted that this distance was to become separated his older brothers and the sons of Ishmael who wanted to kill them, and it seems that in such a situation that Nephi would have led his people a long distance to ensure the protection he would have felt necessary to feel safe and secure.

Whatever land they reached, there they settled down and those with him wanted to call the place the Land of Nephi (2 Nephi 5:8). They then built a city they called the City of Nephi (Alma 23:11), and they built buildings, using wood, iron, copper, steel, gold, and precious ores (2 Nephi 5:15). They also built a temple like the temple of Solomon (2 Nephi 5:16). After a long and noteworthy life, Nephi died about 544 B.C. (Jacob 1:1, 12), probably at the age of 75 to 80 years of age, at the time Jacob would have been about 50.

Over the next one hundred and fifty years, the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land (Jarom 1:5) and were scattered on much of the face of the Land (Jarom 1:6). Jarom also speaks of “sweeping the Lamanites out of our lands” and “began to fortify our cities” and that they “multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land” (Jarom 1:7-8). They built in wood, in iron, and in copper and brass, and in steel (Jarom 1:8).

Following Jarom’s time, there was his son, Omni, and then his son, Amaron, and about 311 B.C., in which the more wicked part of the Nephites had been destroyed by 279 BC. The record then went to his brother, Chemish, who passed the record on to his son, Abinadom, who passed it on to his son, Amaleki.

Now Amaleki was the grandson of Chemish, or the second generation, making the year somewhere around 200 BC. when Amaleki records Mosiah being “warned of the Lord to flee out of the land of Nephi” (Omni 1:12) with as many as would “hearken unto the voice of the Lord” and go with him. They were “led by the power of his arm, through the wilderness, until they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla” (Omni 1:13).

Thus, in the nearly 400 years between 570 B.C. and about 200 BC., the Nephites lived, waxed strong, and spread across the face of the land in the Land of Nephi.

The Nephites built cities, towns and villages

They built many cities, mined gold and silver, and worked in wood, iron, steel, and precious ores in their constructions. There were numerous cities and villages (Alma 23:14) in the Land of Nephi, as well as separate lands referred to as the Land of Ishmael, so named after the sons of Ishmael (Alma 17:19), and the Land of Middoni (Alma 20:2), the Land of Jerusalem (Alma 21:1) which was named after Jerusalem in Palestine, the Land of Mormon (Alma 21:1), the Land of Shilom (Alma 23:12), the Land of Shemlon (Alma 23:12), the Land of Amulon, the Land of Helam (Alma 24:1), and the Land of Midian (Alma 24:5).

There was also a city of Nephi (Alma 23:11), the city of Jerusalem (Alma 21:2), the city of Lemuel, and the city of Shimnilom (Alma 23:12), and there was a village named Ani-Anti (Alma 21:11), which was somewhere between the city of Jerusalem and the Land of Middoni (Alma 21:12). In addition, there were “regions round about” the Land of Middoni (Alma 21:13).

It is not known if there were other cities and lands within the Land of Nephi, for only these are mentioned in the record; however, as the expansion of the Nephites through the land suggests further settlements, there no doubt were many other cities, towns and villages built.

The point is, the Land of Nephi was a large area, with separate lands and numerous cities within its borders. It would appear from the record that the Land of Nephi encompassed many other lands, and even kingdoms, for the Land of Ishmael was a separate kingdom under king Lamoni, and the Land of Middoni under king Antiomno, yet all were in the Land of Nephi where Lamoni’s unnamed father “was king over all the land” (Alma 20:8).

When the mountains rose up in 33 AD., “whose height is great” as prophesied by Samuel the Lamanite forty years earlier), they came up along the east coast of the Land of Promise, pushing the east sea further to the east, and bringing a solid wall of mountains to block the eastern edge of the Land of Promise. These mountains, “whose height is great” (Helaman 14:23), were the Andes, a range with more than 200 mountains over 18,000 feet above sea level, the tallest mountains in the entire Western Hemisphere.

The Andes Mountains is the natural attraction that stretches for over 4,660 miles on a north south plane of the west coastal area of South America

The Andes Mountains are the mountainous spine which dramatically dissects western South America in two from north to south. Everything about South America is directly related to the existence of the Andes—not only the dramatically different landscapes but also the indigenous cultures and their histories, their diverging cuisines, the immensely diverse wilderness and the incredible wildlife, among countless other aspects.

It is a collection of numerous mountain chains, of which the great majority of the chains are volcanic, which join together in what are called orographic knots. These are the high-altitude plateaus, the kind that have created the Bolivian Altiplano, that have allowed for the establishment of human settlements.

It should be noted that the Andes contain enormous metal deposits. The largest gold mine in the world is Peru’s Yanacocha, and both Chile and Peru combine to produce almost half of the world’s mined copper. Latest estimates project that yet-to-be discovered copper deposits in the Andes could total a massive 750 million metric tons, along with 13,000 tons of gold, 250,000 tons of silver and 20 million tons of molybdenum, which is a mineral used to harden steel. Indeed this area satisfies the scriptural record of the Land of Promise having plenty of gold, silver, and copper, as well as sufficient iron and other ores.

Regarding the extreme value of the Andes Mountains as well as the Land of Promise, Nephi said, “we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper” (1 Nephi 18:25), and as Jacob said, “gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores, in the which this land, which is a land of promise unto you and to your seed, doth abound most plentifully” (Jacob 2:12), and as Helaman wrote: “there was all manner of gold in both these lands, and of silver, and of precious ore of every kind” (Helaman 6:11); and as Ether said, “all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work” (Ether 10:23).