According to Hugh Nibley, Nephi's discovery that the best hunting was only at "the top of the mountain" (1 Nephi 16:30) agrees with later experience, for the oryx is a shy animal that travels far and fast over steppe and desert in search of food but retires over to the almost inaccessible sand-mountains for safety." In western Arabia the mountains are not sand but rock, and Burckhardt reports that "in these mountains between Medina and the sea, all the way northward (this is bound to include Lehi's area), mountain goats are met, and the leopards are not uncommon." [Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert, F.A.R.M.S., p. 60]
I Nephi Did Go Forth Up into the Top of the Mountain Hilton Theory
The Hiltons explain that the old (frankincense) trail continues down the coastal plain all the way to Yemen. At al-Qunfidhah one branch of the old trail proceeds southeastward up the wadi Tayyah. It crosses the broad Tihama and winds up through the foothills until it enters the narrow, sand-bottomed valley between massive cliffs that tower up on either side. . . . At the approach to Abha the escarpment has been thrust higher than anywhere else in Arabia. . . . The road is cut into the face of the cliff and rises up from the seacoast to 8,000 feet in only 35 miles (see illustration). . . . Elevation at Soodah, 14 miles out of Abha, is 10,000 feet, the highest point in Saudi Arabia; the city of Abha is about 7,000 feet high. The rest of Arabia slopes gently eastward down from the top of the escarpment across the entire peninsula to the Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf). Once on top, Lehi's party travelled mostly downhill the balance of his journey to Bountiful (Dhofar, Oman). [Lynn M. and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, pp. 130-131]
1 Nephi 16:30 I, Nephi, did go forth up into the top of the mountain ([Illustration]): Proposed routing of Lehi's trail, following one of the ancient frankincense trails from the Red Sea coast up the Sha'ar Ascent to Abha, Khamis Mushait and Nahom. [Lynn M. and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 131]
1 Nephi 16:30 I, Nephi Did Go Forth up into the Top of the Mountain (Hilton Theory) [[Illustration]]: Figure 10-4. Proposed reconstruction of the Lehi-Nephi trail along one of the ancient frankincense roads from the Red Sea to Bountiful. [Lynn M. Hilton and Hope A. Hilton, Discovering Lehi, p. 133]