If Amalickiah took the regular route towards the land of Nephi and assuming a Chiapas setting, the Amalickiahites would have headed up through a well traveled mountain valley or gorge which led to the headwaters of the Grijalva (Sidon) river. The phrase "cut off the course" (Alma 46:31) might lead us to believe that the two groups were coming from different places. Thus according to John Sorenson, Amalickiah and his party, wherever they had been based, might have headed for the land of Nephi without going through the local land of Zarahemla, where the army of Moroni was probably based.