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The Land of Zarahemla is located in the Grijalva River valley in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, Figures 1 and 2. The valley is surrounded on the south, west and north by mountainous wildernesses as described in Alma 22:27. The dark area in the center is an artificial lake created by construction of a hydroelectric damn at the mouth of the Angostura Canyon. Before the damn was built, the Grijalva River ran through the valley in a roughly northwesterly direction with numerous twists and turns (Archeological Exploration of the Upper Grijalva River, Chiapas, Mexico by Gareth W. Lowe in Papers of the New World Archeological Foundation No. 2) as shown in Figure 3.
Its source consisted of three tributaries that originate in the southern wilderness, part of the narrow strip of wilderness mentioned in Alma 22: 27. All three tributaries originate within a 45 mile radius and run from east to west at the source, Alma 22:27, see Figure 4.
Many of those who attempt to determine the geographic location of the Book of Mormon place undo attention on the “narrow neck” which is only mentioned three times in the Book of Mormon with little geographic information that would identify it with a specific location on the American continents, as shown by the myriad of locations proposed for its identity.. The River Sidon, on the other hand, is mentioned over 20 times and in at least four different geographic contexts. Each of these contexts contain geographic information which should make it possible to find a river in the Americas that can be uniquely identified with the River Sidon. The description of the Nephite and Lamanite lands in Alma 22:27-34 identifies 3 specific geographic attributes relative to the River Sidon.
These are: 1. Its head, source, is located in a narrow strip of wilderness. 2. The head runs from east to west 3. The narrow strip of wilderness is located south of the Land of Zarahemla and runs from an east sea to a west sea from the east to the west.
If one accepts that the Book of Mormon is translated correctly from the plates given to Joseph Smith by the Angel Moroni, then the text of the book must be accepted as the most authoritative source for information relative to the geography of the Book of Mormon.
Using the three dimensional satellite maps incorporated into the computer program “EARTHA Global Explorer DVD” by Delorme, a thorough search of the geography of America in 3D can be made. Such a search results in one and only one location that fits the geographic restraints imposed by the text of Alma 22:27 for the River Sidon. This is as described above for the Grijalva River, indicating that the Grijalva is the same river described as the Sidon in the Book of Mormon and as has been proposed by many proponents of Book of Mormon geographies.
See also:
A Correlation of the Sidon River and the Lands of Manti and Zarahemla with the Southern End of the Rio Grijalva (San Miguel) John L. Hilton, Janet F. Hilton Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992. Pp. 142—162
Although these authors correctly identify the head of the Grijalva river with the head of the river Sidon, they present their data so inconsistently that it is no wonder that no one else has taken them seriously. I found this reference recently,several years after I had developed my own conclusions, and was quite surprised that I had not seen it quoted in any of my reading. One glaring example of their inconsistency is their map of Book of Mormon lands in which they show an east sea and a west sea located on a north-south axis according to the compass star in the figure and then use compass directions of east and west to describe the headwaters of the Grijalva river as it is correctly found on subsequent maps in their article. This same figure shows a narrow strip of wilderness on a north-south axis between the east and west seas which does not correlate with any range of mountains in or around the Grijalva river.
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