Part 3: "The Place Which Was Called Nahom"

Nahom, the burial place of Ishmael, holds a unique place in the Book of Mormon story. In common with Jerusalem and the Red Sea, it was an Old World site that was already known by that name, rather than one named by Lehi. Nahom was the final resting place of the patriarch Ishmael, whose children had married Lehi and Sariah’s sons and probably their daughters, and Zoram. Finally, the place marked the most significant change in travel direction on the entire land journey, changing from a southerly bearing to the “nearly eastward” last leg.

 

Over the last decade, Nahom has become the first uniquely Book of Mormon location that is attested archeologically. Indeed, the name has survived to the modern era as the name of an important tribe in the highlands of northern Yemen and of its large territory, a fact not known in 1830. Recent discoveries now allow us to trace this unique name back to Lehi’s day - always in the same general area - revealing indications in its etymology of its origins. Most significantly, they link in multiple ways to Nephi’s account.