A Look at the Andes Mountains and the Land of Promise – Part I

Peru, showing the northeastern region

To understand Peru and its ancient development, it helps to understand the geography of the area, since frequently in Mormon’s descriptions he discusses the type of moving from one city to another with some distances between them. As an example:

When Korihor came into the land of Zarahemla, after preaching he left the city and “went over to the Land of Jershon” (Alma 30:19, emphasis added). Compare that with “And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem” (Luke 13:22, emphasis added); another and more modern interpretation of this statement is “he went through one city and village after another, teaching” (Darby BibleTranslation). Obviously, this suggests close together cities and towns.

On the other hand, another example of going over to another city or from town to distant town, is shown when Alma left the city of “Melek [and] departed thence, and traveled three days' journey on the north of the land of Melek” (Alma 8:6, emphasis added). Compare that to places that are next to one another, side-by-side, as is seen in: “we have traveled from house to house” (Alma 26:28).

Still, another example of distances between towns and cities is: “we took our course, after having traveled much in the wilderness towards the land of Zarahemla” (Alma 58:23). “He took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla” (Alma 15:18). He departed out of their synagogue, and came over to a village which was called Ani-Anti” (Alma21:11, emphasis added). Or, “they departed and came over into the land of Middoni (Alma 21:12, emphasis added). And another: “many of them came over to dwell in the land of Ishmael (Alma 25:13). Still another is: “and departed out of the land, and came into the wilderness which divided the land of Nephi from the land. Zarahemla, and came over near the borders of the land” (Alma 27:14 emphasis added).

Isolated towns and villages in separate valleys requiring a non-direct walk going “over to” from one village to the next

Part of the reason for this type of travel is that of the entire 857,000 square miles of the country, only 3% of Peru's land is arable, with 0.5% being suitable for permanent crops. Permanent pastureland accounts for 21% of Peru's land use, and forests and woodland accounting for 66% of the landscape. Approximately 9.5% of Peruvian land is attributed to population centers, coastal regions, and other spaces. This, of course, causes movement according to topography, such as mountain passes and occupied valleys, with river courses cut through the mountains and hills creating canyons and gorges.

Northern Peru generally has the same seasons as southern Peru, where one encounters different seasons and weather patterns whether being on the coast, in the Andes, or within the Amazon. Generally speaking, the combination of tropical latitude, mountain ranges, topography variations and two ocean currents (Humboldt and El Niño) gives Peru a large diversity of climates. The country has a tropical climate with a wet and dry season.

The eastern portions of Peru include the Amazon Basin, or selva baja, a region that is larger in the north than in the south, and represents roughly 60% of Peru's national territory, which territory includes the Amazon, Marañón, Huallaga and Ucayali rivers. Peru is the fourth largest area of tropical forest in the world only after Brazil, the Congo and Indonesia.

Within Peru, the desert is described as the strip along the northern Pacific coast in the southern Piura and western Lambayeque regions, and extending from the coast from 12 to 62 miles inland to the secondary ridges of the Andes Mountains.

The country can be divided into three main climatic and topographical regions: The Coast, the Andes, and the Rainforest or Jungle.

The Peruvian coast. Note the cliffs all along the shore line that would have prevented Lehi from landing

• The Coast. Stretching along the coast, from the Tumbes in the north bordering Ecuador, to Tacna in the south bordering Chile, a length of 1,555 miles is an arid, dry climate. The width of this narrow area varies from 12 to 62 miles and always has great weather. During Peruvian summer time (December, January) it can be really hot, but otherwise, the weather is mild, warm and sunny.

The northern coast has a curious tropical-dry climate, generally referred to as a tropical savanna, or grassy plain with few trees. This region is a lot warmer and can be unbearable during summer months, where rainfall is also present. The region differs from the southern coast by the presence of shrubs, equatorial dry forests (Thumbes-Piura dry forests) mangrove forests, tropical valleys near rivers such as the Chira and the Thumbes.

The central and southern coast consists mainly of a subtropical desert climate composed of sandy or rocky shores and inland cutting valleys. Days alternate between overcast skies with occasional fog in the winter and sunny skies with occasional haze in the summer.

Sechura Desert occupies 72,900 square miles from the shoreline to the secondary ridges of the western Andes. In the north lies the Northwestern Biosphere Reserve, which includes four natural protected areas of red mangrove and Equatorial Dry Forests. To the south are a series of arable valleys that have provided food in this area long before Columbian times.

The wild, vegetated and relatively wet Sechura desert is located along the coast just south of Piura in the northwestern part of Peru, between the northern border and Peru's equatorial forests, the Tumbes. The landscape is of flailing-armed cacti, spiny succulents like giant artichokes and sand dunes like mountains. Peru’s coast is home to one of the most barren, most imposing deserts known.  Miles and miles of sprawling sand hills, some of the dunes hundreds of feet high, and running all the way from the eastern horizon to the ocean, and not a blade of living grass to be seen—just barren scorched rock and dunes, though there are occasional green and irrigated valleys of mango and avocado orchards in the distance.

At 20,870-feet, Mount Huandoy is the second tallest peak of the Cordillera Blanca

• The Andes. Peru is well known for its mountains, rainforest, and climate. In some areas, especially in Amazonia amazing waterfalls. However, it’s the mountains that draw one’s attention. The country has 24 separate mountain ranges,with 12 mountains above 20,000 feet, and 30 over 19,000 feet, with most being famous for more than just their height. Among Peru's tallest mountains are the sacred peaks and dormant stratovolcanoes—tall, conical volcanoes composed of one layer of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash, and characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions, spreading highly viscous lava that cools and hardens before spreading very far.

In the northern volcanic zone, which extends into Ecuador where there are 55 volcanoes and into northern Peru. Overall, there are 31 volcanoes in Peru; however, in the Rainforest in the northeastern part of the country, there are no volcanoes within a range referred to as the Peruvian Gap. The lack of volcanism in this area is widely attributed to a side effect of the flat-slab (low angle) subduction of the Nazca Plate occurring there.

(See the next post, “A Look at the Andes Mountains and the Land of Promise – Part II,” for a look at the Coast of Peru and more information on the Andean country of Peru)