A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Aaron, City of

AARON, CITY OF. When Alma was first cast out of Ammonihah he turned his face toward a city called Aaron (Alma viii: 13). It is natural to suppose that Aaron was not far distant from Ammonihah; at any rate, not on the other side of the continent. Yet the only other time when a city called Aaron is referred to, it is spoken of as joining the land of Moroni, which was the frontier district in the extreme southeast of the lands possessed by the Nephites. Our only way out of this difficulty is to suggest that there were two cities called Aaron; not at all an unlikely thing when we reflect how important a personage Aaron, the son of Mosiah, was among his people. When chosen to be king he declined this great honor and the republic was established. It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe that a free and grateful people would name more than one city in honor of this self-denying prince.

The only mention made of the first of these two cities is that Alma bent his way "towards the city which was called Aaron." (B. C. 82.) Of the second city of Aaron we learn that it was north of Moroni, on the Atlantic slope; between these two places the Nephites built (B. C. 72) a third city and called it Nephihah (Alma 50:14).