Valley of Lemuel

Parent page: Book of Mormon Geography in the Old World

George Potter photo of "continuously running" river in hypothetical Valley of Lemuel.

Wadi Tayyib al-Ism as a candidate for the Valley of Lemuel

The valley of Lemuel requires several characteristics. In 1995, George Potter and colleagues found a hitherto unrecognized wadi ^[1] which has parallels to the requirements of the Book of Mormon text, including a river of water which is "continually running," which they interpret as requiring a year-round water flow. Although Saudi and US geological surveys have concluded that Saudi Arabia "may...be without any perennial rivers or streams," visits to the area in April, May, July, August, November, December, and January have all found flowing water in the candidate valley which Potter's team identified.

The grandeur of the valley is difficult to describe in words or even portray in photographs. It is a narrow gorge cut through a massive granite mountain. It consists of three sections: the upper valley (or the Waters of Moses), the canyon of granite, and the lower canyon. The upper valley constitutes an oasis that lies at the south end of a twelve-mile long wadi—known locally as Wadi Tayyib al-Ism— that leads down from the north (see map). The upper valley sits like a pleasant jewel, spread out over approximately one square mile with several hundred palm trees and 12 wells that local residents call the Waters of Moses.^[2]

Neal Rappleye:

After arriving at the Red Sea, Lehi and his family travel 3-days before they arrive at a valley with a “continually running” river near the sea’s coastline, with impressive “firm, and steadfast, and immovable” walls and a variety of fruit and grain seeds (1 Nephi 2:5–10; 8:1). Upon discovering the valley and river, Lehi delivered admonitions to his sons precisely following the conventions of ancient Arabic desert poetry. ^[3]

The average rate of travel for small groups in the Arabian Desert is ca. 15–25 miles per day. ^[4] So, this valley should be within 45–75 miles south of the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba (the northeastern arm of the Red Sea). Yet, as late as 1984 a major survey of Saudi Arabian waterways concluded that there were no perennial rivers or streams throughout the whole country.^[5] Turns out they missed one. In 1995, George Potter and a few other explorers found a stream running through Wadi Tayyib al-Ism, 74 miles (of on the ground travel) south of Aqaba, and documented its continuous flow at all times during the year. Only a small stream now, due to modern water pumps diverting the water to population centers, it runs through the valley where it was once a much larger water source. The shear granite cliffs prove more impressive than the walls of other near-by canyons, and various fruit and grain seeds appear to grow naturally there. Though the stream’s mouth does not quite reach the Red Sea at present, evidence suggests that the sea level has dropped considerably, so that around the middle of the first millennium BC, the mouth of this river would have emptied into the sea. ^[6]

All told, Wadi Tayyib al-Ism appears to fit the description of Valley of Lemuel in the 1 Nephi. The “continually running” river in that canyon appears to be the only such river all along the eastern shore of the Red Sea, and it just happens to be within the 30-mile window within which the Valley of Lemuel and River of Laman must be if the Book of Mormon is true. If Joseph Smith made this up, that is a pretty lucky guess!^[7]

The authors have described the area, with further photographs, in a book. ^[8]

While their candidate for the Valley of Lemuel and the River Laman seem truly impressive, other LDS authors have disputed this location for the Valley of Lemuel, suggesting that it is too far from the shores of the Red Sea and that the path required to reach it is implausible. They have offered an alternative based on a different reading of the text's requirements. Chadwick proposes that Bir Marsha, a place easily accessed from the coast of the Red Sea and not far from Potter's candidate, may be more suitable for the Valley of Lemuel, though there may be several other good choices. As for the River Laman, Chadwick believes that it only need have been a wadi flowing with water at the time of Lehi's sermon to his sons, and that it need not flow year round. Lehi said that it ran continuously to the Red Sea, not that it flowed continuously throughout the year, and this can be fulfilled by a path for a wadi that goes into the Red Sea, regardless of how often the path has flowing water. ^[9]

George Potter photo of cove of hypothetical Valley of Lemuel

Notes

1. ↑ George Potter, "A New Candidate in Arabia for the "Valley of Lemuel"," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8/1 (1999): 54–63. wiki
2. ↑ George Potter, "A New Candidate in Arabia for the 'Valley of Lemuel'," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8:1 (1999).
3. ↑ 17 Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites (Provo, Utah: FARMS/Salt Lake City, UT:Deseret Book, 1988), 84–92.
4. ↑ S. Kent Brown, “New Light From Arabia on Lehi’s Trail,” in Echoes and Evidences for the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002), 60.
5. ↑ Water Atlas of Saudi Arabia (Riyhad: Saudi Publishing, 1984), xv.
6. ↑ 20 George D. Potter, “A New Candidate for the Valley of Lemuel,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8/1 (1999): 54–63; S. Kent Brown, “The Hunt for the Valley of Lemuel,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16/1 (2007): 64–73. On the sea level change, James K. Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 208: “[archaeological evidence] indicates that the Red Sea has retreated from its ancient shoreline by five hundred meters.”
7. ↑ Neal Rappleye
8. ↑ Template:LehiWildernessNew1
9. ↑ Jeffrey R. Chadwick, "The Wrong Place for Lehi's Trail and the Valley of Lemuel (Review of: Lehi in the Wilderness)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 197–215. off-site