Ammonihah was a Nephite city in the western part of the land, three days’ journey north of the land of Melek, by the wilderness and near the city of Noah (Alma 8:5-6). By Nephite custom its name came from the man who first possessed the land; the record gives no further detail about him (Alma 8:7). Its people followed the order of Nehor, the man executed for introducing priestcraft and for killing Gideon, whose followers taught that priests should be supported by the people and that all mankind would be saved (Alma 1:2–19).
Alma2 and Amulek preached at Ammonihah on the resurrection (Alma 11), the judgment (Alma 12), and the priesthood (Alma 13), but the people rejected them (Alma 9 through Alma 14). The believers, with their wives and children, were burned, along with the scriptures they kept; Alma and Amulek were made to watch, then imprisoned, struck, and questioned, and were freed when the prison walls collapsed and killed those who had smitten them (Alma 14:7-8; 14:8-28). The people ascribed Alma and Amulek’s power to the devil and did not repent (Alma 15:15). Alma had warned that if they cast out the righteous they would be struck by famine, pestilence, and the sword (Alma 10:23).
In 81 B.C. the Lamanites came in on the wilderness side and destroyed the city and every inhabitant in one day, after the people had said God could not destroy so great a city (Alma 9:4; 16:9-11; 16:3). The bodies lay unburied, and the people did not go in to possess the land for many years; it was called Desolation of Nehors, for those slain were of the profession of Nehor (Alma 16:11). By 71 B.C. the city was partly rebuilt, and Captain Moroni stationed an army there and threw up a ridge of earth around it, so high the Lamanite arrows and stones could not reach the defenders, who could be approached only at the entrance (Alma 49:1-11).