Geography

Where did Lehi cross the ocean?

What BOM locations are known?

Where is the narrow neck of land?

Cumorah is the key

Cumorah (the Jaredite Ramah) is the key to Book of Mormon geography. Not only does it connect the two ancient civilizations (Nephites and Jaredites), but it is the one definite modern site identified by Joseph, Oliver, and their contemporaries and successors.

There are three ways to think of Cumorah.

  1. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were correct when they taught it was a fact that the hill in New York is the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 (and the Jaredite Ramah of Ether 15:11).

  2. Joseph and Oliver were incorrect because:

a. They could not have known where Cumorah was so they speculated and later concluded the location of Cumorah was a matter for scholars (faithful approach adopted by many LDS scholars and their followers).

b. They could not have known where Cumorah was because the Book of Mormon is fiction (skeptical approach adopted by critics).

New York Cumorah

other Cumorahs

Watch All Book of Mormon Voyages in One Minute

BYU Studies article on Geography

A recent article by Andrew Hedges in BYU Studies is reviewed by Jonathan Neville

Chart from Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon, Georgia

[Photo Credit Jonathan Neville]