As additional support for Lehi's journey along the Frankincense Trail "eastward" from the ancient site of Nehem in Yemen to the Dhofar region of Oman, John Tvedtnes notes that the basis of the [ancient Israelite] directional system was the path of the sun . . . John Sorenson also cites Morgenstern as maintaining that the first and second temples at Jerusalem were aligned so that the first rays of the sun on the morning of the fall equinox (Israelite New Year's Day) shone directly in through the eastern gate and down the long axis of the court and building into the holy of holies. (A Source Book, pp. 401-407) This equinoctial orientation would seem to indicate that Lehi's group were aware of directional positions similar to our standard cardinal directions. Thus it seems that whatever their position, those who propose directional standards for the Book of Mormon that are different from cardinal directions are obligated to reconcile those differences in plotting Lehi's trip from Jerusalem to Bountiful.
“We Did Travel Nearly Eastward from That Time Forth”
The Astons explain that probably the strongest evidence . . . that identifies Nahom (and therefore Lehi's easterly turning point -- 1 Nephi 17:1) can be found in a study of the incense trade routes. The trade routes represent, of course, the available water sources, but they also must follow terrain suitable for camel caravans to use. . . . Since water holes do not move, the advent of modern mapping allows us to reconstruct these ancient desert highways with a fairly high degree of certainty. No one in 1830 could do so.
It is of the greatest interest to the student of the Book of Mormon to note that the major trunk of the trade route passed through the Jawf valley within a few miles of Nehem. And it is here--and nowhere else--that the trade route branched eastward toward the Hadhramaut coast and the ancient port of Qana, the modern Bir Ali, to which most of the incense was shipped. Some minor trade routes did branch off to the south, but the major route was to the east. [Warren and Michaela Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, p. 22]
“Nearly Eastward from That Time Forth”
Continuing the discussion of directions from the commentary on 1 Nephi 16:13 ("South-southeast"), the mention by Nephi of going "nearly eastward" from Nahom (1 Nephi 17:1) is a significant building block for establishing a standard of directions in the Book of Mormon. Like the previous situation where we plotted a line going "south-southeast" from the tip of the Red Sea to Nahom, we now have substantive data in order to plot a possible line from Nahom (Nehem, Sana'a, Yemen) "nearly eastward" to Bountiful (Dhofar Region, Oman -- see the commentary on 1 Nephi 17:5). While these site correlations might be tentative they are plausible and thus they give us an opportunity to test a directional standard. The pathway from the tip of the Red Sea to Nehem to the Dhofar region can be represented by the letter "L" overlaid on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. By changing the directional standard, or in other words by rotating this letter "L" about an axis at the tip of the Red Sea (see illustration), a cultural and geographical correlation for Lehi's trip to Bountiful becomes more difficult to explain the more the letter is rotated. Thus, without eliminating other directional options out of hand, the proposed pathway of Lehi leading "south-southeast" along the Red Sea and then "eastward" from the ancient site of Nehem, Sana'a, Yemen to the Dhofar region of Oman provides a plausible directional standard similar to our cardinal directions. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
1 Nephi 17:1 Nearly eastward from that time forth (Illustration): An illustration of the ramifications of directional shift in Lehi's journey to Bountiful.
“Nearly Eastward from That Time Forth”
John Sorenson has shown that we must be cautious in regards to directions. In a book review article he says, "I have tried several times to make the matter (of directions) clear, but perhaps one more try here will make the crucial points unmistakable. Six ideas are worth noting."
1. All systems for labelling directions are arbitrary and spring from the unique historical, geographical and linguistic backgrounds of specific peoples. Thousands of such schemes have existed in history, and large numbers still exist.
2. More than one system of direction labels is commonly used in a single culture. The sun is involved in many of these, but in varied ways. After all, at best the sun "rises" or "sets" at the same point on the horizon (if that point can indeed normally be seen at all due to terrain, tree cover, clouds, etc.) no more than two days per year as it moves through its annual cycle, hence "where the sun rises," for example, is indeterminate without further definition. In our society, as in nearly all others, a few specialists (astronomers) determine and tell the rest of us where, for example, "east" or "north" lies. Most people, even today, remain vague about how their culture's ideal system of directions applies in daily life.
3. Various other criteria (e.g., the rising or setting of certain stars, seeing particular landmarks, or the prevailing wind) may take precedence over the sun.
4. When a people move from one location to another, their system of directions is quite sure to undergo change.
5. What exactly were the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the directional terminology (or terminologies) used by Lehi's family in the land of Judah? The Book of Mormon never explains, and other sources such as the Old Testament fail to make the matter clear to us either.
6. The Book of Mormon refers to directions at many points, but no attempt at an explanation of their mental model, however brief, is ever given.
[John L. Sorenson, "Viva Zapato! Hurray for the Shoe!" A review of Deanne G. Matheny, "Does the Shoe Fit? A Critique of the Limited Tehuantepec Geography" in Daniel C. Peterson ed. Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 6, Num. 1, 1994, F.A.R.M.S., pp. 307-308] [For an extensive discussion on cultural disparities in directional systems, see John L. Sorenson, A Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book, F.A.R.M.S., pp. 401-415]
"We Did Travel Nearly Eastward from That Time Forth"
Glenn Scott notes that in the early days of the Restored Church, Frederick G. Williams (one-time counselor to Joseph Smith, Jr.) in a notation about Lehi's colony wrote, "they traveled nearly a south south East direction until they came to the nineteenth degree of North Lattitude [sic] then nearly east to the Sea of Arabia."
Thus, Williams added to Nephi's words his own assumption. A harmless speculation, but in 1882 a Salt Lake City printer, F.D. Richards, attributed William's notation to Joseph Smith, Jr., and called it a revelation. That claim was refuted by William's great-great-grandson who said "the page on which the original Frederick G. Williams statement is found, gives no evidence of revelatory origin. . . . It should not be given any more authority than any other theory."
Most current Book of Mormon scholars believe the nineteenth parallel is too far north to match Nephi's record. To go eastward at that latitude would have taken them through 600 miles of the Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter), the most terrible desert on earth, ending in eastern Oman far beyond the few fertile pockets on Arabia's southern coast.
Lynn and Hope Hilton have proposed and explored a more southerly route from Al Qunfudhah on the nineteenth parallel, southeast through the Wadi Ababish and the caravan city of Abha, to the ancient site of Najran, which they formerly equated with Nahom but now have the trail continue on through Sadah to Nahom. Due east would have brought Lehi's party to a point in the Jabal Qara mountains north of Salalah, a small fertile valley on the Dhofar Coast of Oman, at the eastern limit of the frankincense growing area.
However, Warren and Michaela Aston have pointed out that even this course would require traversing (or at least skirting) 300 miles of the terrible Rub al Khali, then crossing over the 3,000 foot Jabal Qara mountains to find a small valley separated from the sea by the wide, arid Jarbib plain. They propose that Camp Nahom was near the village of Nehem in the Wadi Jauf on the sixteenth parallel. From there one possible route would lead through the wadis Hadramaut and Masilah, a natural gate through the Hadramaut mountains to the Bay of Sayhut. But another fertile pocket further east called Wadi Sayq, may fit Nephi's description better. In it is one of the only two perennial rivers on the Arabian peninsula, and it has large trees more suitable for shipbuilding than the Jumaise (sycamore-fig) trees at Salalah.
Regardless of which of these fertile pockets on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula may have been Nephi's Valley Bountiful, it is interesting that for a hundred years after the publication of The Book of Mormon the scholarly world ridiculed such a possibility. [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust, p. 80]
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward from that time forth ([Illustration]): Various Theories Proposed of Lehi's Trail. Map 6. [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust, p. 78]
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward from that time forth (Hilton Theory) [Illustration]: Figure 10-4. Proposed reconstruction of the Lehi-Nephi trail along one of the ancient frankincense roads from the Red Sea to Bountiful. [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 133]
“We Did Travel Nearly Eastward from That Time Forth”
It might seem to many readers that the phrase "we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth" (1 Nephi 17:1) refers to the direction that Lehi traveled from Nahom to Bountiful; however, it must be kept in mind that Nephi was writing this account from the promised land (the Americas). Therefore, it is possible that Nephi could have used the phrase "nearly eastward from that time forth" to explain the direction of the total remaining journey to the promised land, including even the voyage across the sea. If so, this phrase might help determine Lehi's landing site in the New World. Theoretically by extending a line "nearly eastward" from the proposed site of Nahom (Nehem) in Yemen toward the Americas on a map, one can see that the extended line would reach to Mesoamerica (see illustration). According to research presented in the Newsletter of the Ancient America Foundation, Lynn Hilton notes that the four proposed sites of Nephi's eastward journey (Nahom, Bountiful, Land of 1st Inheritance, City of Nephi) cluster along the fifteenth parallel (see illustration). Starting at Nahom, Yemen, it is approximately 794 miles to arrive at the tropical paradise Bountiful (Salalah, Dhufar, Oman) with its huge hardwood trees. . . . The deviation from the heading Nahom-Salalah to true east is 83 miles for this leg of the journey. The sea voyage from Bountiful (Salalah, Dhufar, Oman) to the Land of the First Inheritance (Tapachula/Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico) is approximately 15,000 miles. . . . The deviation after a 15,000 mile sea voyage from true east of Nahom is about 48 miles! . . . The final leg of the eastward travels of Nephi came after the death and burial of Lehi in the Land of the First Inheritance. Nephi had serious disagreements with his older brothers and then took all who would follow him . . . and journeyed many days in the wilderness (2 Nephi 5:7). He established the city of Nephi perhaps near Guatemala City, at a distance of approximately 110 miles from the Lamanites. Guatemala City is but a scant deviation of 69 miles from true east of Nahom! Corroboration of the idea that the Land of the First Inheritance was "west" of the City of Nephi is found in the scripture Alma 22:28. . . . This achievement is really astonishing and should be considered as a serious proposal for the starting point for Book of Mormon geography in the New World. [Lynn M. Hilton, "Nephi's 'Eastward' Journey," in Ancient America Foundation (AAF) Newsletter, Num. 5, August 1995, pp. 2-3] [See the illustration for 1 Nephi 18:8 -- Across the Sea to the Promised Land]
Note* As an additional comment to the Hilton's research, it is interesting to note that Richard Hauck's proposed city of Nephi (Mixco Viejo) is 19 miles northward from Guatemala City, and thus represents even a smaller distance of deviation from the projected line going "eastward" from Nahom. It is also interesting to note that the Aston's proposed site for Bountiful (Wadi Sayq, Oman) represents even less deviation from the projected "eastward" line of travel than the Hilton's site of Salalah. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes] [See the illustration -- Latitude of Sites on Nephi's Eastward Journey]
1 Nephi 17:1 Nearly eastward from that time forth ([Illustration]): Table: Latitude of Sites on Nephi's Eastward Journey
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward ([Illustration]): Map of southeastern Arabia showing the final stages of Lehi's journey and all locations referred to in the text. [Warren and Michaela Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, p. 11]
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward ([Illustration]): The barren Qasmar mountains isolate "Bountiful" and prevent coastal access other than through Wadi Sayq. [Warren and Michaela Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, pp. 66-67]
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward ([Illustration]): The flood scoured floor of Wadi Sayq leading to the coast at Khor Kharfot. [Warren and Michaela Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi, pp. 66-67]
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward ([Illustration]): View into the great Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert. No habitation exists in this forsaken area of a quarter-of-a-million square miles. Lehi's party likely skirted the south end of this area as they made their way across the last 800 miles of the journey to Bountiful. Ancient caravans took from two to three months to cross to the Dhofar region, the area where frankincense trees were indigenous and abundant. [Scot and Maurine Proctor, Light from the Dust, pp. 40-41]
1 Nephi 17:1 We did travel nearly eastward ([Illustration]): Looking into the ominous, barren canyons of Wadi Sayq (pronounced sike) in modern Oman. The elevation here is over 4,000 feet and within twenty miles will drop to the ocean. In one of these feeder canyons Lehi and his party may have entered the wadi and followed the directions of the Liahona through the main canyon to the ocean. Certainly, viewing this foreboding canyon, they would not have known that lush Bountiful was directly ahead. [Scot and Maurine Proctor, Light from the Dust, pp. 42-43]