Nephi mentions that "the waters of the river [Laman] emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea" (1 Nephi 2:9). According to Hugh Nibley, the 100 mile long northeastern extension of the Red Sea, (or the sector where Lehi's party possibly first came upon the sea) is not an open sea at all, and is not the Red Sea, . . . but opens out to the sea at its mouth. A glance at the map will show that there is a northwestern extension of the Red Sea also, closely resembling the one on the northeast. This western arm anciently had the mysterious and much-discussed name of "Yam Suph," Sea (or fountain) of Weeds (or rushes)." If the one on the west was called a "yam" (or fountain), what is more natural than that its twin gulf to the east should bear the same designation? [Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, F.A.R.M.S., p. 76]
1 Nephi 2:9 Fountain of the Red Sea ([Illustration]): View at sunset across the Gulf of Aqaba near the border of modern Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Lehi refers to such an area in the record as the "fountain of the Red Sea." [Scot and Maurine Proctor, Light from the Dust, pp. 28-29]