Book of Mormon Geography: Bountiful and Manti

The two easiest lands in ZARAHEMLA to locate are Bountiful and Manti. Bountiful’s northern border has already been established as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. As seen in Alma 22:33, the Nephites inhabited this land “from the east unto the west sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward.”

Mormon’s failure to say “from the east sea to the west sea” does not suggest the Nephites formed this strategic barrier from some point in the east to the west sea. How effective would that have been had they left Bountiful’s east coastline unprotected, considering that the more idle part of the Lamanites inhabited the wilderness along ZARAHEMLA’s east coastline?

Manti is just as easy to locate. Alma 22:27 tells us Manti is north of the river Sidon’s upper course and that no other land lies between Manti and the Sidon. Alma 43:32 describes Manti as on the west side of the Sidon.