Watch: Compelling Book of Mormon Evidence for Lehi’s Journey through Arabia

June 12, 2019

Updated on January 29, 2020

David Snell in a Book of Mormon Central Evidence Video

While the majority of the events described in the Book of Mormon took place in the Americas, the opening chapters are set in the ancient Near East. They tell of a prophet named Lehi, who, with his family and others, fled from Jerusalem. After traveling for years through a harsh wilderness, they reached a lush coastal region where they set sail across the ocean. Fortunately, the prophetic author of this record (Lehi’s son, Nephi) recorded many specific details about his family’s travels. These details include names and descriptions of locations, relative distances and directions, and travel conditions along the way.

For many years, researchers have been carefully studying Nephi’s account and comparing it with the known geography of ancient Israel and the Arabian Peninsula. The results of these ongoing studies have been both fascinating and faith promoting. Nearly every travel detail in Nephi’s account can now be connected with some plausible site, route, or ancient custom or practice. It would be impossible to briefly cover the depth and breadth of scholarship on this topic. Instead, Book of Mormon Central has created a video to introduce readers to this body of research and to highlight some of the compelling geographic evidence that if offers.

As you watch, you will follow in the footsteps of Lehi and his family as they journeyed from place to place through Palestine, along the borders of the Red Sea, and across the Arabian Peninsula. Along with artistic representations and generic images of Arabia and the Middle East, you will see photos and footage of some of the actual places where scholars believe Lehi’s family traveled or set up camp. Warren Aston, a Latter-day Saint researcher who has personally explored several of these sites, has explained that when important scriptural locations are “anchored in the real world, we can re-read the scriptural account with heightened appreciation for the story being told and its applications to our own life journey.”1

Book of Mormon Central hopes your love and appreciation of the Book of Mormon can grow as you place yourselves in the shoes—or, more appropriately, the sandals—of its founding prophets, as well as the other travelers, including courageous women, who had the faith to follow them. In addition, we believe that your faith can be strengthened or, if necessary, reignited as you consider the intimate relationships between Nephi’s account and locations that were far away and almost certainly unknown to Joseph Smith in 1829.

For the evidence which supports the claims made in this video, as well as a fairly comprehensive sampling of the available research on this topic, click on the Sources below.

Sources for Old World Geography Evidence Video

Land of Jerusalem

Book of Mormon Central, “Why Does the Book of Mormon refer to the ‘land of Jerusalem’?” Q&A, January 29, 2018, online at bookofmormoncentral.org.
Neal Rappleye, “Apocryphon of Jeremiah (4Q385a),” Nephite History in Context 2 (December 2017): 1–5.
Neal Rappleye, “Letters of ʿAbdu-Ḫeba (EA 285–290),” Nephite History in Context 2 (December 2017): 6–13.
Yuval Gadot, “In the Valley of the King: Jerusalem’s Rural Hinterland in the 8th–4th Centuries BCE,” Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 42 (2015): 3–26.
Gordon C. Thomasson, “Revisiting the Land of Jerusalem,” in Pressing Forward with the Book of Mormon: The FARMS Updates of the 1990s, ed. John W. Welch and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999), 139–141.
Robert F. Smith, “The Land of Jerusalem: The Place of Jesus’ Birth,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: FARMS and Deseret Book, 1992), 170–172.
Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: FARMS and Deseret Book, 1988), 6–7.

Jerusalem’s Elevation

Book of Mormon Central, “Why Does Nephi Always Go Down to the Wilderness and Up to Jerusalem? (1 Nephi 3:4),” KnoWhy 6 (January 7, 2016).
Book of Mormon Central, “Did Jerusalem Have Walls Around It? (1 Nephi 4:4),” KnoWhy 7 (January 8, 2016).
David J. Larsen, “Ascending into the Hill of the Lord: What the Psalms Can Tell Us About the Rituals of the First Temple,” in Ancient Temple Worship: Proceedings of the Expound Symposium 14 May 2011, ed. Matthew B. Brown, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Stephen D. Ricks, and John S. Thompson (Orem, UT and Salt Lake City, UT: Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2014), 171–188.
Jeffrey R. Chadwick, “Lehi’s House at Jerusalem and the Land of His Inheritance,” in Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 81–130.
Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 5 (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 7.

Valley of Lemuel

Book of Mormon Central, “Have the Valley of Lemuel and the River Laman Been Found? (1 Nephi 2:6),” KnoWhy 286 (March 13, 2017).
Warren P. Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia: The Old World Setting of the Book of Mormon (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Publishing, 2015).
S. Kent Brown, “The Hunt for the Valley of Lemuel,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 1 (2007): 64–73.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
David A. LeFevre, “We Did Again Take Our Journey,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 58–122.
Jeffrey R. Chadwick, “The Wrong Place for Lehi’s Trail and the Valley of Lemuel,” FARMS Review17, no. 2 (2005): 197–215.
John A. Tvedtnes, “More on the River Laman,” Insights: A Window on the Ancient World 25, no. 3 (2005): 2–3.
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 27–29.
George Potter and Richard Wellington, Lehi in the Wilderness: 81 New, Documented Evidences That the Book of Mormon is a True History (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2003), 31–51.
S. Kent Brown, “New Light From Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences for the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002), 60.
George D. Potter, “A New Candidate in Arabia for the Valley of Lemuel,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 1 (1999): 54–63.
James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997), 208.

Shazer

“Shazer,” Book of Mormon Onomasticon, online at onoma.lib.byu.edu.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
David A. LeFevre, “We Did Again Take Our Journey,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 58–122.
George Potter and Richard Wellington, Lehi in the Wilderness: 81 New, Documented Evidences That the Book of Mormon is a True History (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2003), 76–77.
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 29–30.
Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 5 (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 74, 78–79.

Reduced Fertility

Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
George Potter and Richard Wellington, Lehi in the Wilderness: 81 New, Documented Evidences That the Book of Mormon is a True History (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2003), 82–84.
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 30–32.

Broken Bow

Alan Goff, “Dan Vogel’s Family Romance and the Book of Mormon as Smith Family Allegory,” FARMS Review 17, no. 2 (2005): 388.
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 31–32.
David A. LeFevre, “We Did Again Take Our Journey,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 58–122.
George Potter and Richard Wellington, Lehi in the Wilderness: 81 New Documented Evidence That the Book of Mormon Is a True History (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, Inc., 2003), 99–105.
William J. Hamblin, “Nephi’s Bows and Arrows,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 41–43.
William J. Hamblin, “The Bow and Arrow in the Book of Mormon,” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1990), 365–399.
Nahum W. Waldman, “The Breaking of the Bow,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 69, no. 2 (1978): 82–83.
Alan Goff, “A Hermeneutic of Sacred Texts: Historicism, Revisionism, Positivism, and the Bible and Book of Mormon,” (MA dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1970), 92–99.

Nahom

Book of Mormon Central, “Evidences of the Book of Mormon: Nahom,” online at bookofmormoncentral.org.
Book of Mormon Central, “Who Called Ishmael’s Burial Place Nahom? (1 Nephi 16:34),” KnoWhy 19 (January 26, 2016).
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
Warren P. Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia: The Old World Setting of the Book of Mormon (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Publishing, 2015).
Warren P. Aston, “The Origins of the Nihm Tribe of Yemen: A Window into Arabia’s Past,” Journal of Arabian Studies 4, no. 1 (2014): 145–146.
Neal Rappleye and Stephen O. Smoot, “Book of Mormon Minimalists and the NHM Inscriptions: A Response to Dan Vogel,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 8 (2014): 157–185.
Warren P. Aston, “A History of NaHoM,” BYU Studies Quarterly 51, no. 2 (2012): 79–98.
Stephen D. Ricks, “On Lehi’s Trail: Nahom, Ishmael’s Burial Place,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 20, no. 1 (2011): 66–68.
James Gee, “The Nahom Maps,” Journal of Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 17, no. 1–2 (2008): 40–57.
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 32–34.
David A. LeFevre, “We Did Again Take Our Journey,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 58–122.
S. Kent Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 81–83.
Warren P. Aston, “Newly Found Altars from Nahom,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10, no. 2 (2001): 57–61.
Warren P. Aston and Michaela Knoth Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi: New Evidence of Lehi’s Journey across Arabia to Bountiful (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1994), 3–25.
Warren P. Aston, Michaela J. Aston, and John W. Welch, “Lehi’s Trail and Nahom Revisited,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, edited John W. Welch (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1992), 47–52.
Alan Goff, “Mourning, Consolation, and Repentance at Nahom,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon: Insights You May Have Missed Before, ed. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1991), 92–99
Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley: Volume 5 (Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 79.

Eastward Turn

Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
Warren P. Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia: The Old World Setting of the Book of Mormon (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Publishing, 2015).
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 34–35.
David A. LeFevre, “We Did Again Take Our Journey,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 58–122.
S. Kent Brown, “New Light—Nahom and the ‘Eastward’ Turn,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 111–112.
S. Kent Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 88–92.

Bountiful

Book of Mormon Central, “Has the Location of Nephi's Bountiful Been Discovered? (1 Nephi 17:5),” KnoWhy 259 (January 9, 2017).
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
Warren P. Aston, “Khor Kharfot, Dhofar Archaeological Survey,” The BFSA Bulletin 21 (2016): 18–19.
F. Richard Hauck, “The 2015 Archaeological Report for Khor Kharfot,” Khor Kharfot Foundation (Farmington, UT: Archeological Research Institute, 2016).
Iftikhar A. Abbasi, “Geological Assessment of the Khor Kharfot Sediments, Western Dhofar Region, Sultanate of Oman,” SQU Journal of Science 21, no. 1 (2016): 16–25.
Warren P. Aston, “Did Anyone Else in History ever Mention Nephi’s Bountiful?” Meridian Magazine, February 24, 2016, online at lds.org.
Book of Mormon Central, “Interview with Warren Aston,” (Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central, 2015), online at archive.bookofmormoncentral.org.
Warren P. Aston, Lehi and Sariah in Arabia: The Old World Setting of the Book of Mormon (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Publishing, 2015), 101–155.
Warren P. Aston, “Timber for Nephi’s Ship,” Meridian Magazine, May 6, 2014, online at ldsmag.com.
Warren P. Aston, “Was Nephi’s Bountiful Populated? Does it Matter?” Meridian Magazine, April 24, 2014, online at ldsmag.com.
Warren P. Aston, “Beginnings: The Discovery of Nephi’s Bountiful,” Meridian Magazine, April 11, 2014, online at ldsmag.com.
Warren P. Aston, “The Discovery of Nephi’s Bountiful, Part 2,” Meridian Magazine, April 17, 2014, online at ldsmag.com.
Michael R. Ash, “Joseph's Environment and the Book of Mormon,” in Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony In the Face of Criticism and Doubt, 2nd ed. (Redding, CA: FairMormon, 2013), 140–142.
Warren P. Aston, “Why Arabia’s Hidden Valley is the Best Candidate for Bountiful,” Meridian Magazine, May 28, 2013, online at ldsmag.com.
Warren P. Aston, “Arabia’s Hidden Valley: A Unique Habitat in Dhofar Captures Arabia’s Past,” Wildlife Middle East 6, no. 4 (2013): 2–4).
South Arabian Pottery in Khor Mughsayl, Oman: An Early Settlement Connection – Glanzman (2011)
Terry Ball, “Letter to the Editor,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 18, no. 1 (2009): 56–57.
Warren P. Aston, “Identifying Our Best Candidate for Nephi’s Bountiful,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 17, no. 1–2 (2008): 58–64.
Wm. Revell Phillips, “Mughsayl: Another Candidate for Land Bountiful,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 2 (2007): 48–59, 97.
Warren P. Aston, “Across Arabia with Lehi and Sariah: ‘Truth Shall Spring out of the Earth,’” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 15–21.
S. Kent Brown and Peter Johnson, Journey of Faith: From Jerusalem to the Promised Land (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2006). Also see the associated DVD documentary.
David A. LeFevre, “We Did Again Take Our Journey,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 58–122.
Jeffrey R. Chadwick, “An Archeologist’s View,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 75–77.
Richard Wellington and George Potter, “Lehi’s Trail: From the Valley of Lemuel to Nephi’s Harbor,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006): 35–43.
Lynn M. Hilton, “In Search of Lehi’s Trail—30 Years Later,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 15, no. 2 (2006).
S. Kent Brown, Voices from the Dust: Book of Mormon Insights (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2004).
S. Kent Brown, “New Light: Nahom and the ‘Eastward’ Turn,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 111–112, 120.
George Potter and Richard Wellington, Lehi in the Wilderness: 81 New, Documented Evidences that the Book of Mormon is a True History (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 2003), 121–162.
S. Kent Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002), 89–97.
Wm. Revell Phillips, “Metals of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9, no. 2 (2000): 36–43, 82.
Terry B. Ball, S. Kent Brown, Arnold H. Green, David J. Johnson, and W. Revell Phillips, “Planning Research on Oman: The End of Lehi’s Trail,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7, no. 1 (1998): 12–21, 70.
Noel B. Reynolds, “Lehi’s Arabian Journey Updated,” in Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1997).
Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi: New Evidence of Lehi and Nephi in Arabia (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, 1996).
A Preliminary Study of the Geology and Mineral Resources of Dhofar, the Sultanate of Oman - Clark (1995)
L. Ara Norwood, “Bountiful Found,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 7, no. 1 (1995): 85–90.
Warren P. Aston and Michaela K. Aston, In the Footsteps of Lehi (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1994), 27–59.
And We Called the Place Bountiful: The End of Lehi's Arabian Journey – Astons (1991)
A Preliminary Report of A Visit to The Yemen Arab Republic In November – Astons (1984)
Eugene England, “Through the Arabian Desert to a Bountiful Land: Could Joseph Smith Have Known the Way?” in Book of Mormon Authorship: New Light on Ancient Origins, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1982), 143–146.
Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, In Search of Lehi‘s Trail (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1976).
Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, “In Search of Lehi’s Trail—Part 2: The Journey,” Ensign, October 1976, online at lds.org.
Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, “In Search of Lehi’s Trail—Part 1: The Preparation,” Ensign, September 1976, online at lds.org.
Hugh Nibley, “Lehi in the Desert,” Improvement Era 53, no. 9 (1950): 707–708; reprinted in Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Volume 5 (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1988), 109–111.

Maps or Sources Potentially Accessible to Joseph Smith

Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 1 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 153–239.
Jeff Lindsay, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Map: Part 2 of 2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 247–326.
James Gee, “The Nahom Maps,” Journal of Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 17, no. 1–2 (2008): 40–57.
S. Kent Brown, “New Light from Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 72–75.