Sixth Stage of Colonization and Civilization of Zarahemla

Before we cover the southern settlement we will decifer some northern settlements, These sites are somewhat tenative so I will only place them temporarily on the map as one's location is not known for sure and the name of the other is not known. The Book of Mormon mentions the city of Sidom, but gives it no location. Sidom, marked by the blue 'S' on the map, was the city that the persecuted saints from Ammonihah fled to for refuge. (Alma 15:1) I'd suggest a possible site being in a northeastern direction following the river valley and a distance from Ammonihah and Noah, the two wicked cities. Assuming Sidom was on the other side of the river, just about places Sidom between the two rivers in the low lands, being accessible by both valleys as a possible position for this city.

The un-named site is marked by the blue letter 'A' on the map and is in the land east of the river Sidon. This marks the land in which the people of Amlici assembled themselves, voted for a king, and prepared for war.

And it came to pass that the people assembled themselves together throughout all the land, every man according to his mind, whether it were for or against Amlici, in separate bodies, having much dispute and wonderful contentions one with another. . . . And it came to pass that they gathered themselves (the Amlicites) together and did consecrate Amlici to be their king. . . . And it came to pass that the Amlicites came upon the hill Amnihu which was east of the river Sidon, which ran by the land of Zarahemla, and there they began to make war with the Nephites." (Alma 2:5 & 9 & 15)

Since a part of the people assembled themselves together and voted for Amlici to be King, and since the east side of the river is where they organized their army, it is assumed they had a land and city in this area below Zarahemla on the east of the river Sidon.

When Alma was in pursuit of Amlici and his army, Alma camped for the night in the mouth of the valley of Gideon and sent 'spies' to follow the army of Amlici to see where they would go. Amoung the spies was a man named Manti. There is reason to believe that it was this soldier named Manti that the city of Manti was named after demoted by the 'M' at the headwaters of the Sidon/Magdalina River. In the same year but later, after Alma defeated the combined armies of the Lamanites and Amlicites, there came another Lamanite army against the Nephites. This Lamanite army did not take Alma and his people by surprise as did the first Lamanite army that marched with little opposition through the land of Minion almost all the way to the central city of Zarahemla. Now why, when, where, and by whom was the second army of the Lamanites detected before they entered into the central main lands of the Nephites?

Alma, having been caught unprepared once by a Lamanite invasion, certainly would now take the necessary steps to not be so caught again. Thus, Alma would have had Manti and others establish an early detection and forewarning system all the way up in the regions of the headwaters of the Sidon River. From there any Lamanite movements toward the land of Zarahemla could be scouted out and detected long before the Lamanites could come into the land proper by having messengers run the information down to the central lands and prepare the people. So thus it was, that Manti was above the central land by some distance and there was a sizable wilderness between Manti and the central land of Zarahemla which has been previously discussed. And it is to this time, purpose, location and person that it is looked to, whereby Manti was settled and established.

Manti was a military post city, an outlook city, on the southern border of the land. One of the unique archeological facts about the Manti or San Agustin and Tierradentro regions of the upper Sidon, is that it had 'fallout shelters' which are difficult to find as their entrances were hidden. These underground shelters are assumed by archeologist to be a form of underground tomb for burial. A graphic showning one of these, shows eight side chambers with two central columns left to support the enterior of its structure. The inner walls are decorated and there have been bones found buried in some of their floors and some burial urns. A furter description of the structure follows:

"Cut into the soft rock are large undergound rooms accessible by steep spiral stairways, the upper end of which is hidden under earth-coverd slabs, no exterior mark indicating the existence of these burial chambers." (Colombia, by Prof. G. Reichel-Dolmantoff, page 96)

From understanding Manti's outpost position the 'shelters' may have served for more than just burial in its floors and for some internment urns. It is conceivable that when the lookout scouts sighted the enemy, that rather than fleeing before them, the women and children where ushered into their underground hiding places while the military held the fort until reinforcements could arrive. Perhaps some archeologist will stumble across one of these shelters in the future. And perhaps it will have been untouched since the time of the Nephites and some direct evidences of the Nephites from the Nephite times be found. Most all of these evidences are gone which the Lamanites attempted to completely destroy in their fight of hatred and extinction against the Nephites.

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