The city of Zarahemla was the Nephite capital, set in the land basin named after Zarahemla, leader of the Mulekites—a people who had come from Jerusalem at the time of Zedekiah’s captivity and dwelt in the land until Mosiah, leading a group out of the land of Nephi, discovered them. The two peoples united and made Mosiah their king (Omni 1:14-19).
Under King Mosiah2, grandson of the Mosiah who founded the union (Omni 1:23; Mosiah 1:2), the monarchy was replaced by a system of judges chosen by the voice of the people, with the chief judge seated at Zarahemla (Mosiah 29). The first chief judge was Alma2, son of Alma1, who also held the office of high priest (Mosiah 29:42). Alma2 later left the judgment-seat to preach across the land, meeting rejection at Ammonihah (Alma 4-15).
Zarahemla saw repeated conflict: occupation by Nephite dissidents, and attack and temporary capture by Lamanite forces (Alma 51-62; Helaman 1). It was also a site of conversion—when Nephi2 and Lehi4 preached there, eight thousand Lamanites in and around the land were baptized (Helaman 5:16-19).
At the time of Christ’s death, the storm and earthquakes set the city on fire and its inhabitants died (3 Nephi 8:8, 24; 9:3). It was afterward rebuilt (4 Nephi 1:8). Near the end of the Nephite record, Mormon describes the land as covered with buildings and its people nearly as numerous as the sand of the sea, with war beginning in the borders of Zarahemla by the waters of Sidon (Mormon 1:6-7, 10).