A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Zarahemla, Land of
ZARAHEMLA, LAND OF. As there were two lands of Nephi, the greater and the lesser, so, for exactly the same reasons, there were two lands of Zarahemla; the one occupying the whole of South America, from the great wilderness, which formed its southern border, northward to the land Bountiful; the other, the district immediately surrounding the capital city, which bore the same name.
That there was a Zarahemla within Zarahemla is shown by various passages in which persons are spoken of as journeying to the land of Zarahemla, when they were already within the borders of the greater land of that name. For instance, Minon, on the river Sidon, is said to have been situated above the land of Zarahemla (Alma 2:24); again, Alma took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla from Sidom (Alma, 15:18). While in many other places, notably where the boundaries of the possessions of the Nephites are given, the name Zarahemla is applied to the whole of the lands of that people, even sometimes including Bountiful, which is generally spoken of separately.
In the days of the first Mosiah and his son, king Benjamin, the greater portion of the Nephites appear to have been located in and immediately around the city of Zarahemla. King Benjamin, when about to resign the royal authority into the hands of his son Mosiah, commanded him to gather his people together, for, he adds, on the morrow I shall proclaim unto this my people out of mine own mouth, that thou art a king and a ruler over this people (Mosiah, 1:10). The proclamation was sent forth and the people were gathered in an unnumbered host; a thing that could not have been done in so short a time had their habitations been widely scattered over an extended territory.
In the reign of the younger Mosiah, the people spread out in all directions, and colonies were planted in distant regions. This vigorous policy was continued, only on a much larger scale, during the days of the Judges. We suggest that the lands or cities included within the borders of the land of Zarahemla, in the days of the Judges, were:
In the extreme north, the land of Bountiful, which extended southward from the Isthmus of Panama. On its southern frontier lay the land of Jershon.
On the river Sidon: Zarahemla, Minon, Gideon and Manti.
In the interior, eastward of the Sidon: Antionum, Siron, and Nephihah.
On the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea: Mulek, Morianton, Lehi, Omner, Gid, Aaron and Moroni.
In the interior west of the Sidon: Melek, Aaron, Noah, Ammonihah and Sidom.
Between the upper waters of the Sidon and the Pacific Ocean: Cumeni, Antiparah, Judea and Zeezrom.