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Various locations have been proposed as the geographical setting of the Book of Mormon, or the set of locations where the events described in the Book of Mormon is said to have taken place. There is no universal consensus - even among Mormon scholars - regarding the placement of these locations in the known world, other than somewhere in the Americas.
A popular "traditional" view among many Latter Day Saint faithful covers much of North and South America. However, many Book of Mormon scholars, particularly in recent decades, believe the text itself favors a less expansive (“limited”) geographical setting for most of the Book of Mormon events. The two most notable proposed limited geography models are based in Mesoamerica, and in the Great Lakes area of North America.
The largest of the churches embracing the Book of Mormon—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)—has not endorsed an official position for the geographical setting the Book of Mormon, although some of its leaders have spoken of various possible locations over the years. There have also been multiple attempts to identify the several civilizations in the Book of Mormon, which are dated in the text as living from 2500 BC to 400 AD, but no consensus has ever been reached.
Mainstream scholars and archeologists do not accept the proposed locations as plausible. For example, in a 1998 letter to the Institute for Religious Research, the National Geographic Society stated that "Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere's past and the society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon."[1]
- ^ "National Geographic Society Statement on the Book of Mormon". August 12, 1998. Letter from Julie Crain addressed to Luke Wilson of the Institute for Religious Research.
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