Geographic: A three day’s journey was a relatively long distance for travel between sites when we remember that the distance from sea to sea was a day to a day and a half’s journey (Helaman 4:7 and Alma 22:32). The general topography of the land would have Ammonihah in the downstream lands.
“The route taken by Alma from Melek ran “on the north” parallel to the mountain wilderness on his left. Beyond it lay a narrow coastal strip. During his three-day trip 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. Its 30 major mounds are impressively concentrated in an area about 400 meters on each side. This place was prominent enough to justify the pride of the Ammonihahites in hits importance (Alma 9:4). Its cultural connections with the Zarahemla/Santa Rosa area were definite though not intimate, the same type of relationship implied in the Ammonihah people’s guardedly hostile response to Alma’s message (Alma 8:11-12). (Sorenson, John L. An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. FARMS 1985, p. 199-201.
Sorenson’s speculations on the relationships between archaeological sites deserves further comment. While it is difficult to know of political alliances in this time period prior to the wide implementation of the Maya glyphic writing system, we may certainly infer from that later time the nature of the relationships between sites. They became, as they are described in the Book of Mormon, rather loose alliances where the cities have great autonomy with a more or less voluntary affiliation with a “central” city. This is the type of relationship that is noted in the Book of Mormon for Ammonihah and Zarahemla, and the archaeological evidence that shows some stylistic similarities would indicate that the two sites in question (Mirador/Ammonihah; Santa Rosa/Zarahemla) shared in a cultural milieu without necessarily indicating a complete relationship that might be indicated by greater exchange of material goods, or an even greater stylistic similarity between sites. In other words, the archaeological relationship does fit into both a Mesoamerican and Book of Mormon political style, and the geographic plausibility remains that these sites may have been those named in the Book of Mormon.