The Pasión River Model
How the model works
Robert C. Roylance and Dr. Richard E. Terry propose that the lands of the Book of Mormon lie in the Maya lowlands of northern Guatemala and Belize. On their reading, the River Sidon is the Río de la Pasión, the city of Zarahemla is the Maya site of Ceibal on its banks, the land of Nephi is the Salamá Valley in the highlands to the south, and the hill Cumorah is Cerro Achotal near the Río Hondo.
Method
Six steps the authors follow
Start with three anchors, not the neck
Most models begin by choosing a narrow neck of land. The authors first fix the land of Nephi, Zarahemla and Cumorah, then search the ground between Zarahemla and Cumorah for the neck.
Use the consensus shape of the text
About 27 to 30 text-only maps by different researchers agree on an "upright hourglass": Nephi south, Zarahemla in the middle, a narrow neck, and lands northward. The model keeps that shape without rotating the compass.
Honor the directions as written
North means north. The Maya laid out cities by the cardinal points, and the authors argue the Nephites knew their directions too.
Read "seas" the way Lehi's family did
The Book of Mormon never uses the word lake. The authors read some "seas" as large inland waters, as the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee are called seas.
Name a test that could fail
The authors wrote that if the fortification at the narrow neck could not be found, the model would be meaningless. They point to the Tikal earthwork as that test.
Check against the whole text
Book of Mormon Central's 246-question audit of distances, directions and elevations is reported by the authors as a perfect score for the model.
Key identifications
Book of Mormon places and proposed sites
"Strong" and "Possible" follow the authors' own ratings of how confident they are, not an outside judgment. Every place is on the map.
| In the Book of Mormon | Proposed site | Scripture | Authors' rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| River Sidon | Río de la Pasión, Guatemala | Alma 16:6–7; 43:22–53 | Strong |
| Zarahemla | Ceibal, on a bluff above the Pasión | Omni 1:13–19; Alma 2 | Strong |
| Manti | Cancuén, the river port upstream | Alma 16:6–7; 56–58 | Strong |
| Hill Riplah | Cerro Chabilchoch, in the hills south of Manti where the Pasión rises | Alma 43:24–41 | Possible |
| Antionum | Uxbenká, southern Belize | Alma 31:3; 43:22 | Strong |
| Land of Nephi | Salamá Valley, Baja Verapaz | Mosiah 7–11 | Strong |
| Waters of Mormon | Springs near the Biotopo del Quetzal | Mosiah 18:5, 30 | Strong |
| Narrow neck of land | The earthwork between Tikal and Uaxactún | Alma 50:34; Helaman 4:7 | Strong |
| City of Desolation | Uaxactún | Mormon 3:5; 4:2, 19 | Strong |
| City of Bountiful | Altun Ha, Belize | Alma 52–53 | Strong |
| City of Mulek | Belize City, at the mouth of the Belize River | Alma 51:26 | Strong |
| Hill Cumorah (and Ramah) | Cerro Achotal, near the Río Hondo | Mormon 6; Ether 15:11 | Strong |
| Jaredite first landing | Chetumal Bay, near Cerros | Ether 6:12; Alma 22:30 | Strong |
| Land of Moron | The Mirador Basin | Ether 7:5–6 | Strong |
Strengths
Where the case is strongest
- The method is explicit: it uses other researchers' consensus map to narrow the search, and it states a test that could fail.
- Ceibal's decline around AD 300 and the Teotihuacan "Entrada" of AD 378 are real, independently dated events that fall where the record's final wars do.
- Puleston and Callender, who mapped the Tikal earthwork in 1967, read it as a defense facing Uaxactún, the orientation the model needs.
- Tikal's conquest of Uaxactún in 378 is recorded on Maya monuments and fits the record's account of the city of Desolation falling.
- The Pasión rises from a cave under a hill south of Cancuén, giving the river a physical "head" in the high south country (Alma 43).
- Richard Hauck's survey of the Salamá Valley offers a detailed, prior case for the land of Nephi there.
Open questions
Where it is still debated
- No inscription names Nephites or Lamanites. The Maya kings and the Entrada are real history, but tying them to the record rests on timing and pattern, not on names.
- The "west sea" at the narrow neck. The model reads seasonal wetlands (bajos) near Tikal as seas. Critics say a bajo is a swamp, not a sea you could travel. This is the most criticized point.
- The earthwork's date and purpose. Later fieldwork led by David Webster treats the earthwork's AD 400 to 550 date as provisional, finds it unfinished, and doubts it was ever a working defense; some pottery under it may be later still. The authors now put the whole line at about 13 miles (21 km), from La Cuernavilla east past Tikal; Puleston measured the earthwork he walked at about 9.5 km.
- Ceibal's later history. Newer radiocarbon work (Inomata and Triadan) dates Ceibal's greatest monuments to AD 700 to 900, long after the record closes, and reads its earlier low point differently.
- Catastrophes at the crucifixion. Ash layers, landslides and sunken sites exist in the region, but none has been dated to the time of Christ.
- Jaredites as the early Maya. Linking the Jaredites to the early Maya and the Olmec is the authors' most tentative step; they call it a subject of inquiry rather than a conclusion.
Other models
How it compares
Faithful researchers have proposed many geographies. These are the main alternatives the authors respond to.
Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Mesoamerican, Sorenson)
Places the narrow neck at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. It has real oceans on both sides, a strong point. The authors argue it is far wider than a day's journey and that it requires rotating directions by about 45 degrees.
Kaminaljuyú as the land of Nephi
Many Mesoamerican models put the city of Nephi at Kaminaljuyú, in today's Guatemala City, for good reasons. This model places it in the Salamá Valley instead.
North American (Heartland) models
Place the events in the eastern United States, with Cumorah in New York. The authors do not engage them in detail.
Faith and evidence
A note from the authors' approach
The authors write as believers. They present the model as a study of where the events could have happened, not as the basis of testimony, which they tie to the promise in Moroni 10:3–5. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes no official position on Book of Mormon geography.
Guide to the Pasión River model
Ask MORONI: questions answered from the sources
MORONI knows every page, episode, map place and document on this site. Type or speak a question in any language; it cites its sources and notes where other models see things differently.