Geography: Limhi’s people exit from the “back” of the city through a secret pass between mountains, apparently leading toward Shilom. Since the topography suggests that Shilom is at a lower elevation than Lehi-Nephi, the group would be traveling down a valley, perhaps a drainage, toward Shilom. Thus, they go “round about the land of Shilom.” They do not get all of the way to Shilom, because they remain “in the wilderness,” meaning unpopulated land. However, it is certainly not desolate. It would have had trees, pasturage for their flocks, and other types of cover. Although they were following no road, the bottom of the valley, ravine, or drainage provided a reasonable pathway.
At some point before reaching Shilom and at a safe distance from that city, they were able to “bend their course toward the land of Zarahemla,” suggesting skirting some foothills. Sorenson’s map depicts precisely this arrangement of mountains and valleys.