In the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

, the land of Lehi-Nephi (; also referred to as the land of Nephi) is the homeland of the

Nephite According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites () are one of four groups (along with the Lamanites, Jaredites, and Mulekites) to have settled in the ancient Americas. The term is used throughout the Book of Mormon to describe the religious, po ...

s in the early times of the Book of Mormon. The land is later conquered by the

Lamanites The Lamanites () are one of the four ancient peoples (along with the Jaredites, the Mulekites, and the Nephites) described as having settled in the ancient Americas in the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. The Lamani ...

, and the remaining Nephites flee to the land of

Zarahemla According to the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Zarahemla () refers to a large city in the ancient Americas which is described in the Book of Mormon. Archaeologists and historians have not been able to archaeological ...

, home of the Mulekites. In later years, an expedition under

Zeniff Zeniff () is a minor but pivotal person in the Book of Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, his lineage is uncertain other than he came from a group of Nephites which included Nephites, Zoramites, and Mulekites. He left Zarahemla with a large ...

returns to Lehi-Nephi to recolonize the area, and at first, the Lamanites allow them to settle. Zeniff, his son

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

, and Noah's son

Limhi In the Book of Mormon, Limhi () was the third and final king of the second Nephite habitation of the land of Lehi-Nephi. He succeeded his father, Noah. Led by Ammon (a mulekite) Limhi escaped from the Lamanites with his people to the land of Zara ...

rule as kings over their people in the land of Lehi-Nephi. Ultimately the Nephite settlers leave the land of Nephi because of Lamanite oppression. They are led by Ammon, the leader of a party sent by king Mosiah son of king Benjamin to learn the fate of Zeniff's group. They return to Zarahemla as refugees. According to the Book of Mormon, the land of Nephi was south of and at higher elevation than Zarahemla. A strip of wilderness running east and west divided the land of Nephi from the land of Zarahemla. In the 1st century BC, the lands of Nephi and Zarahemla were bordered on the east and on the west by bodies of water that were called respectively "the east sea" and "the west sea." There is no unequivocal indication in the Book of Mormon that the seas were intended to represent oceans, but the term "lake" is not used in the Book of Mormon to describe an inland body of water, and a parallel is seen between the American Promised Land of the Book of Mormon and the Biblical

Promised Land The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...

, which is bordered by inland seas. The book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon tells of a search party that was sent out from the land of Nephi to find the land of Zarahemla. Traveling northward in "a land among many waters," in the general vicinity of the Book of Mormon land

Cumorah Cumorah (; also known as Mormon Hill,A. P. Kesler"Mormon Hill" ''Young Woman's Journal'', 9:73 (February 1898)."Thomas Cook History, 1930", in Dan Vogel ed. (2000). ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 3 (Salt Lake City: Signature Books ) pp. 243– ...

, the search party mistakenly supposes that it has found the land of Zarahemla.Mosiah 21:25-26
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References

{{reflist, 2 Book of Mormon places