“The Land of Melek”

Alan C. Miner

Alma traveled "over into" the land of Melek (Alma 8:3), a phrase that not only indicates hilly or mountainous terrain "over into" a valley, but possibly a crossing "over" of a body of water before going "into" a new land. The reader should note that the land of Melek was just "west" of the (local) land of Zarahemla "by the borders of the wilderness" (Alma 8:3), whereas the wilderness of Hermounts was "north and west" (Alma 2:37). In Alma 22:28 it talks about Lamanites living on the west of the land of Zarahemla, but just in the "borders by the sea" (if we interpret right) which could have been on the other side of the wilderness from the land of Melek. No city of Melek is mentioned at this time, although there may have been one. Alma taught "throughout all the land of Melek" (Alma 8:4) apparently going to certain villages, and people sought baptism from "throughout all the borders of the land which was by the wilderness side" (Alma 8:5). This might refer to what could have been a considerable stretch of foothill country .

Using the Mesoamerican map (and the River Grijalva = the Sidon River theory), the Chiapas depression (general land of Zarahemla area) is bordered on the west by a mountain range that runs parallel with the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The land of Melek would seem to correspond well with an area in that mountain range. [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes] [See Geographical Theory Maps]

“Alma Departed from Thence and Took His Journey Over into the Land of Melek”

John Sorenson notes that the second leg of Alma's preaching circuit took the Nephite high priest to Melek, near the west wilderness. This place is implied in the several references to it to be some distance from Zarahemla (Alma 8:3; Alma 45:18). On the western edge of the central depression of Chiapas [Sorenson's greater land of Zarahemla] one major settlement area stands out. Called the Frailesca, its name came from the fact that the friars of the Dominican religious order of the Catholic Church controlled this productive territory in Spanish colonial days. Near Villa Flores, the heart of the area, is an impressive ruined site now labeled Vera Cruz II. It is the largest settlement in the whole western zone that dates to the late second century B.C. when Alma made his journey. (However, the Book of Mormon never mentions any city of Melek, so no large center need be expected.) A primary route directly linked Santa Rosa (the proposed local land of Zarahemla) with this Frailesca (Melek) region. The several adjacent valleys that together constitute the western zone would have constituted "all the borders of the land which was by the wilderness side," whose people flocked together to hear Alma preach (Alma 8:5). The route taken by Alma towards Ammonihah ran "on the north" parallel to the mountain wilderness on his left. Beyond it lay a narrow coastal strip. During his "three-day journey on the north of the land of Melek" (Alma 8:6), he seems not to have gone through any settlement worth mentioning. Since he was an older man by this time, we should not suppose he would cover in three days more than 50 or 60 miles. From the Frailesca such a trip would have brought him to the archaeological site of Mirador, a major regional center of western Chiapas from Jaredite times until after the Nephites disappeared. [John L. Sorenson An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, pp. 198, 201]

Alma 8:3 Melek (Illustration): John Sorenson's proposed site for Melek (the Frailesca region near Villa Flores). Topographic Map of the Pacific Coast of Chiapas and Guatemala. Map drawn by topographer Eduardo Martinez E. with the collaboration of Gonzalo Utrilla. New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University, 1982.

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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