Walking Across the Narrow Neck

Walking Across the Narrow Neck

Last week I walked across the Book of Mormon's "Narrow Neck of Land".  It took me 6 ½ hours to walk from the sea east to the sea west.  The Book of Mormon reports that a Nephite could do it in a day.  I was ready to call it a day when I had finished.  I am not used to walking 20 kilometers.

The place I consider to be the Narrow Neck of Land is located in Nicaragua, more precisely the Isthmus of Rivas between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua.  (For further details check web page).  I believe this is the only isthmus in the western hemisphere that matches the description in the Mormon scripture.  This "narrow neck" feature is the key to identifying Book of Mormon geography and locating Nephite lands.  Many other geographies have been proposed but none that I can find has an identifiable, rational "narrow neck of land" trending in a "northward" direction and bordered by two bodies of water.

This "narrow neck" should be traversable in 12 hours or a normal day.  It should be remembered that the Nephites did not travel at night even when pursuing, or being pursued, by their enemies, so it is not legitimate  to suggest a 24 hour day. 

I challenge those espousing other theories to prove them by actually walking across their proposed "narrow necks" in a day.  The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico, the "narrow neck" of one of the proposed theories, would take at least four days to cross on foot.  The Isthmus of Panama, which was the route of some of the "forty-niners" traveling to the California goldfields, required three days to cross.  If the geography is incorrect, the archaeology is irrelevant, no matter how impressive.