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Book of Mormon

Geography

Ether Travel Maps



Ether Travel Maps    down to the internal map

Map 1 (Great Tower to Moriancumer)Map 1 (Great Tower to Moriancumer)
Map 2 (Promised Land to Moron)Map 2 (Promised Land to Moron)
Map 3 (Moron, Nehor, and Hill Ephraim)Map 3 (Moron, Nehor, and Hill Ephraim)
Map 4 (Moron, Nehor, and Heth)Map 4 (Moron, Nehor, and Heth)
Map 5 (Nehor to Ablom)Map 5 (Nehor to Ablom)
Map 6 (Omer past Hill Shim)Map 6 (Omer past Hill Shim)
Map 7 (Nehor to Land Southward)Map 7 (Nehor to Land Southward)
Map 8 (Battles between Coriantumr and Shared)Map 8 (Battles between Coriantumr and Shared)
Map 9 (Battles between Coriantumr and Shiz)Map 9 (Battles between Coriantumr and Shiz)
Map 10 (Final battles between Coriantumr and Shiz)Map 10 (Final battles between Coriantumr and Shiz)


Map 1 (Great Tower to Moriancumer)
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Great Tower to Moriancumer on an internal map


Verses    up to the internal map  down to the world map

Ether 1:16 And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the Brother of Jared, and had compassion upon him, and said unto him, Go to and gather together thy flocks, both male and female, of every kind; and also of the seed of the earth of every kind, and thy family; and also Jared thy brother and his family; and also thy friends and their families, and the friends of Jared and their families.

Ether 1:17 And when thou hast done this, thou shalt go at the head of them down into the valley, which is northward.

Ether 1:18 And there will I meet thee, and I will go before thee into a land which is choice above all the land of the earth.

Ether 1:19 And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation.

Ether 1:20 And there shall be none greater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth.

Ether 1:21 And this will I do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me.

Ether 1:22 And it came to pass that Jared, and his brother, and their families, and also the friends of Jared and his brother, and their families, went down into the valley which was northward, (and the name of the valley was Nimrod, being called after the mighty hunter,) with their flocks which they had gathered together, male and female, of every kind.

Ether 1:26 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded them that they should go forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been.

Ether 1:27 And it came to pass that the Lord did go before them, and did talk with them as he stood in a cloud, and gave directions whither they should travel.

Ether 1:28 And it came to pass that they did travel in the wilderness, and did build barges, in which they did cross many waters, being directed continually by the hand of the Lord.

Ether 1:29 And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people;

Ether 1:36 And now I proceed with my record; for behold it came to pass that the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands.

Ether 1:37 And as they came to the sea, they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer; and they dwelt in tents; and dwelt in tents upon the sea-shore for the space of four years.

Ether 1:60 And it came to pass that the Brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared, was eight,) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did moulten out of a rock sixteen small stones;

Ether 3:5 And it came to pass that when they had done all these things, they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.

Ether 3:6 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land: and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.



World Location    up to verses  down to commentary

Great Tower to Moriancumer on a world map
Great Tower to Moriancumer on a world map


Commentary    up to world map

The Bible locates the Tower of Babel in the area of the upper Euphrates, not the city of Babylon. There is some archaeological evidence of large structures in the area of the upper Euphrates. The order of cities conquered by Nimrod (in Genesis) also indicates that he started in the upper reaches of the Euphrates. It is also only in the upper reaches of the Euphrates that verbal traditions mention an area controlled by Nimrod. Ether 1:17 mentions a valley north of their starting point that they had to go "down into." The term "down into" indicates the need to start outside the valley in order to go "down" into the valley. There is a valley north of the Euphrates river, the Araxes (Araks) River valley. There is also a place near Mus and Erzurum, Turkey, where it is possible to cross from the Euphrates river valley to the Araxes River valley and this place became part of the western portion of the Silk Road.

The Araxes River valley empties into the Caspian Sea near a wilderness (mountainous area).

Ether 1:28 mentions "many waters" and 1:29 mentions a single "sea in the wilderness." Hebrew does not have a singular form for water and it is always translated in plural form. This agrees with the use of a singular "sea" in the next verse. So, 1:29 clarifies that Ether crossed only one body of water, not more than one as other authors of Book of Mormon geography may claim.

The route shown follows one of the routes of the Silk Road (which were actually a series of routes given the name of Silk Road much later after the time of Ether). The Silk Road went through the Dzungarian Gate, a break in the mountains that is the only east/west pass.

The eastern end of the Silk Road ended with a few routes to the sea, but the route shown is the southernmost of the routes that ended near Qingdao. The other route went towards Beijing, further to the north. Both Qingdao and Beijing have mountains that come near the sea shore (Ether 1:60). Near Qingdao is Laoshan Mountain, and it contains minerals that can be mined. Qingdao was also used as a port on the Silk Road.


© 2002- Aric Turner