According to Joseph Allen, the village of Almolonga is located just a few miles south of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. It is a beautiful community that is called the horticulture capital of Central America. The natural hot springs that flow from the mountains make the valley green throughout the year and are reminiscent of Alma's statement that the land of Helam was "a very beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water" (Mosiah 23:4). Alma and his followers lived there for 25 years, from 145 B.C. to 120 B.C. The distance from Lake Atitlan to Almolonga is about 65 miles. The travel time from the waters of Mormon to the land of Helam was eight days. A native Guatemalan can walk from Lake Atitlan to Almolonga in three days; however, the scripture states that Alma's group took their flocks and carried their grain, which suggests that the travel time would be lengthened to eight days. The land between Lake Atitlan and Almolonga certainly meets the requirements for a wilderness. The natives of Guatemala farm on the sides and the tops of the mountains. In the summer, the mountains are a spectacular green, and in the autumn, the mountains look like gold with the ripened wheat, barley, and corn blowing in the cool breeze. As the year moves along, the picture is presented of a giant, hand-embroidered, patched quilt as it manifests a variety of colors. [Joseph Allen, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, p. 293]
“They Began to Prosper Exceedingly and They Built a City Which They Called the City of Helam”
The people of Alma1 named their city "Helam" (Mosiah 23:20), apparently in honor of "one of the first" of Alma's baptisms (Mosiah 18:12). How many years would it take to "prosper exceedingly" and to "build a city" (Mosiah 23:19-20)? How many people did it take to make a Nephite city? When Alma's group fled from the waters of Mormon, "they were in number about four hundred and fifty souls" (Mosiah 18:35). Yet, here we have mention of a city. Looking at the chronology chart, it is possible that Alma's group had lived between 15 and 30 years at Helam by this time. Would this be enough time for sufficient growth in order to call the place a city?
According to John Sorenson, the term "city" appears to have had a definite, formal meaning among the Nephites and was not tied directly to the number of a settlement's inhabitants. The Hebrew word translated as "city" had the fundamental meaning of "temple center." A city in Book of Mormon terminology had to have a certain authoritative status, but it didn't have to be metropolis-sized or even contain any given number of people. [John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., pp. 158-159] Thus, a temple might have lent enough authority to a given location for it to be called a "city."
Ammon, either on his initial 40-day trip to the land of Nephi with his 15 companions or on his flight to the land of Zarahemla with Limhi's people, never encountered Alma's group in the land of Helam. Thus, the city of Helam was perhaps somewhat away from those routes.
“Helam”
According to John Sorenson, the geographical arrangement that seems the most logical puts the land of Helam in the well-watered Rio Blanco Valley, and the Valley of Alma around Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Beyond that point, travelers bound northward and westward, like the Lamanite army chasing Alma, clearly pass a threshold--a literal watershed--separating the highlands that look back toward the Valley of Guatemala (Nephi) from terrain that starts to drop toward the Grijalva River drainage of Chiapas, Mexico (Zarahemla). A different geographical arrangement could also serve. That two places are suitable for the land of Helam warns us that we may not have our other sites for Book of Mormon events pinned down with absolute finality; but all we seek at this time is at least one plausible setting. Later, accumulated information may allow a definitive judgment. The alternative puts Helam around Malacatancito, where an archaeological site of Nephite age lies adjacent to the origin of the Rio San Juan as it "gushes out of an opening in the base of the Cuchumatanes Mountains." This might be the "pure water" that impressed Alma. [John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, F.A.R.M.S., p. 180]
Clate Mask points out that not only is John Sorenson's information concerning Malacatancito incorrect, but that the correct information might lead to some new perspectives on the land of Helam and the head of the river Sidon. According to Mask, "there are hundreds of areas with springs of pure water, (several with Preclassic ruins nearby) that could be Helam, but there is only ONE headwater so unique at its origin that it is on the modern highway map of the country of Guatemala (Mapa Turistico, Instituto Guatemalteco De Turismo, Guatemala, Guatemala, 1994). It is prominently labeled "Nacimiento del Rio San Juan" (the birth, source or HEAD of the San Juan River). It is so noteworthy . . . because the water gushes straight up out from the base of a mountain in a rather unusual way [which way is significant to Mayan religious beliefs]. The head of the river Sidon is mentioned five times in the Book of Mormon. Are they the same landmark? The Rio San Juan is a tributary of the Usumacinta River--Jakeman and Hauck's proposed river Sidon [and not a tributary of the Grijalva river--Sorenson's river Sidon]. [Clate Mask, "10 Criteria or 206 Mini-Tests," pp. 12-14, 1996]
Mosiah 23:19 Helam ([Illustration]): The location of Malacatancito and the location of the "Nacimiento del Rio San Juan (the birth, source, or HEAD of the San Juan River. [Clate Mask, "10 Criteria or 206 Mini-Tests," pp. 12-14, 1996]