The phrase "the Lamanites did come down" (Mormon 3:7) might also give us some verification of the meaning of the terms "up" and "down" in the Book of Mormon. The Lamanites were south of the Nephites, thus they would have "come down" against the Nephites going northward. As people read a map, they normally use the word "down" to describe movement going southward from a certain point on the map. Therefore, because this verse doesn't fit with our normal manner of reading maps, we might be justified in assuming that the terms "down" and "up" refer to elevation in the Book of Mormon story. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
John Sorenson notes that Mormon has not used a single "up", "down," or "over" in his own account to this point, so this use of the term "down" is probably meaningful here. [John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book, p. 302]
“The Lamanites Did Come Down to the City of Desolation”
In Mormon 3:7, it says that "the Lamanites did come down to the city of Desolation to battle." According to David Palmer, in the Mesoamerican geographic model of John Sorenson, the city of Desolation is located at Minatitlan, Mexico near the Gulf of Mexico on the Coatzacoalcos River. That location is near his proposed "narrow pass" which is a gravelly ridge coming from the east through swampy terrain. However, close examination shows that there are no elevated areas within a hundred kilometers of this gravelly ridge near this location on the Coatzacoalcos River. In addition, John Sorenson himself notes (Setting, p. 43) that when his narrow pass (gravelly ridge) is approached from the direction of the west sea in the series of final battles of the Nephites (Mormon 2:3-6, 16-17, and 29 to 4:23), the city Bountiful goes unmentioned. His only comment regarding this problem is that "perhaps the city Bountiful was no longer inhabited by the fourth century A.D."
As an alternative to Sorenson's proposed location for the city of Desolation, David Palmer goes on to say that by contrast (to Sorenson's location distant from any mountains), the Sierra Madre reaches close to the shoreline on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where a city located near the present town of Juchitan could control travel both towards the Tuxtlas (on the north) and towards the valley of Oaxaca (on the northwest). Could this not be the specific land of Desolation spoken of? If so, it would seem likely that the city Desolation was Laguna Zope, a very large center during both Jaredite and Nephite times. Laguna Zope is located 1 kilometer from Juchitan and straddles the Pan American Highway. It was in an exceptionally good location to benefit from trade through the isthmus. Notice that the text implies that the city of Desolation was near the seashore because "the city Teancum lay in the borders by the seashore, and it was also near the city Desolation." (Mormon 4:3)
If the city Desolation was near the sea, then which sea was it near? This is suggested, though not definitively, by the almost identical wording of Mormon 3:5-7 and Alma 63:5:
I did cause my people that they should gather themselves together at the land Desolation to a city which was in the borders, by the narrow pass which led into the land southward (Mormon 3:5)
And it came to pass that Hagoth . . . built an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward. (Alma 63:5)
Either one of the two inland lagoons on the Pacific Ocean side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec would have been ideal launching points for such a vessel. [David A. Palmer, In Search of Cumorah, p. 33]
Note** Richard Hauck apparently agrees with a Pacific coastal location for the city of Desolation. [F. Richard Hauck, Deciphering the Geography of the Book of Mormon, pp. 102-104] [See Geographical Theory Maps]