Cumorah

The stone box, described by Joseph Smith as the location where the plates were found, has not been located on the hill. In a letter, Oliver Cowdery gives the location as "the west side of the hill, not far from the top".[24] Shortly after Smith announced he had the plates, some local residents unsuccessfully searched the hill for a freshly dug hole that could have contained the plates. They did note a significantly sized hole on the east side of the hill that had been dug years previously by treasure seekers.[25]

In the Book of Mormon, Cumorah is mentioned in six verses, five in chapter 6 and one in chapter 8 of a subpart of the book, which is also known as the Book of Mormon. According to the record, Mormon is one of the final caretakers of the records of his people. He combined and abridged the records and engraved them on gold plates. His people, called the Nephites, were near to being destroyed by the Lamanites who had had many previous wars with the Nephites. Mormon wrote to the leader of the Lamanites to ask that he may gather his "people unto the land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them battle."[27] Cumorah is described as being in a land with "many waters, rivers, and fountains".[9]

The leader of the Lamanites agreed, and all of the Nephites gathered together, including their women and children. Mormon wrote, "And when three hundred and eighty and four years had passed away [since the sign of the birth of Christ], we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah."[28] Mormon then hid all of the records of his people in the hill, except for the plates that he was currently writing on, which he gave to his son Moroni.[29]

The Lamanites then attacked the Nephites, who were led by twenty-three men each with ten thousand men under their command.[30] Mormon recorded that all but 24 of the Nephites had been killed, "even all my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me", except for those who fled to the south or defected to the Lamanites.[31]

Mormon then records his mourning for his people and a last message to those who will read his record later, then again turns the unburied records over to his son Moroni. Moroni records, "after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed. And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people."[32]

This hill, known as "Cumorah" among the Nephites, was called "Ramah" (/ˈrɑːmɑː/)[33] by the Jaredites:

In the Book of Mormon, during the time of the Book of Alma, the land of Cumorah was part of the land of Desolation, "the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken". This land is identified as being north of the land of Zarahemla.[34]

Moroni lived several years after recording the destruction of his people. He translated and abridged the plates which were the record of the Jaredites as the Book of Ether on to the plates that he was keeping. During this process, he wrote, "Omer ... passed by the hill of Shim, and came over by the place where the Nephites were destroyed,"[35] and "it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord, which were sacred."[36] These passages identify the Nephite hill Cumorah as the same hill where the Jaredites had fought their final battle.

At least ten different accounts refer to certain events that occurred at the hill Cumorah in New York.[37] According to the account of Brigham Young, the angel instructed Joseph Smith to carry the golden plates back to the hill Cumorah. When Smith and Oliver Cowdery arrived, "the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room." The account continues by saying they found "more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls." When they first entered, the Sword of Laban was hanging on the wall. When they re-entered later, the Sword of Laban was unsheathed and resting on top of the newly delivered golden plates. The sword had an inscription on it that said the sword "will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ."[38]^: 38 It has been suggested by Mesoamerican Cumorah advocates that these events occurred in a vision rather than a physical visit.[39]

There has been no on-site archaeological research at Cumorah in New York.

For a variety of reasons, some Mormon scholars have proposed the Cerro El Vigia (coordinates: 18°33′N 95°11′W or 18°27′25″N 95°21′01″W ) in Veracruz, Mexico, as the hill Cumorah in the Book of Mormon. John L. Sorenson has listed 15 cultural criteria for the hill Cumorah which are based on contextual clues from the text of the Book of Mormon: cities, towers, agriculture, metallurgy, formal political states, organized religion, idolatry, crafts, trade, writing, weaponry, astronomy, calendar systems, cement, and wheels. Sorensen alleges that the hill in New York at least partly fits four of these requirements while the Cerro El Vigia meets all of them.[40]

According to David Palmer, a list of topographic and geographic criteria for Cumorah has been developed. These criteria are as follows:[41]

1. It was near an eastern seacoast (Ether 9–3).
2. It was near a narrow neck of land (Alma 22:29–32, Mormon 2:29, Mormon 3:5, Alma 43, Alma 56, Alma 50:33–34, Alma 52:9, Mormon 3:5–7, Alma 63:5, Ether 10:22–28).
3. It was on a coastal plain, and possibly near other mountains and valleys (Ether 14:12–15).
4. It was one day's journey south (east-south-east in modern coordinates) of a large body of water (Ether 15:8–11).
5. It was in an area of many rivers and waters (Mormon 6:4).
6. It was in the presence of fountains (Mormon 6:4).
7. The abundance of water apparently provided a military advantage (Mormon 6:4).
8. There was an escape route to the land ("country") southward (Mormon 8:2).
9. The hill was large enough to provide a view of hundreds of thousands of bodies (Mormon 6:11).
10. The hill was apparently a significant landmark (Ether 9; Mormon 6:6).
11. The hill was apparently free standing so people could camp around it (Mormon 6:2, Mormon 6:11).
12. The climate was apparently temperate with no record of cold or snow (Enos 1:20, Alma 46:40)
13. The hill was located in a volcanic zone susceptible to earthquakes (3 Nephi 8:6–23)

Meroni, Comoros appears on a 1748 map by French hydrographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin[42]

Grant H. Palmer suggested that Smith borrowed the name "Cumorah" through his study of the treasure-hunting stories of Captain William Kidd.[43] Previous to announcing his discovery of the Book of Mormon, Smith had spent several years employed as a treasure seeker in Chenango County, New York.[44] Kidd is considered to have started the treasure digging phenomenon[45] after burying treasure on Gardiner's Island in New York, which was later recovered by the colonial governor of New York. Capt. Kidd had buried this treasure after returning from an Indian Ocean voyage where he lost a third of his crew to cholera on the Comoros islands. Palmer suggested that Smith borrowed the name of a settlement in the Comoros—Moroni—and applied it to the angel who showed him where to find the golden plates buried in the Hill Cumorah.

FAIR, the Latter-day Saint apologetics organization, contends at length that the connection is tenuous.[46]

Mormon authors have suggested that the ancestors of the Nephite people may have encountered the Comoros islands on their initial voyage from the Arabian Peninsula to the western hemisphere, and that the Nephite civilization therefore may have retained a collective knowledge of the names "Comoros" and "Moroni".[47]

A minority of LDS scholars, some of whom specialize in 19th-century American literature, place the original literary setting for the Book of Mormon among the mythic mound builders of North America.[48]