Hills, valleys and banks flanking the river Sidon sometimes served as battlegrounds for the Nephite wars. When describing conflicts, these highly visible landmarks were not ignored by the Book of Mormon record keepers. The recorded hills, valleys and banks, however, cannot be simply placed on a map where we wish them to be. They are where they are. Thus landmark features within any proposed location would be required to match the relative alignments and terrain configurations stated within the Book of Mormon text. If the record says a hill was on the east of the river Sidon, we should be able to match the account to a hill on the east and not in some other direction. Indeed the successful matching and aligning of these hills, valleys and banks to the area of the Rio San Ignacio in Baja California on Google Earth, and especially while viewing them on the ground, was an incredible moment for us.

• Valley of Gideon
• Hill Manti
• Hill Amnihu
• Hill Riplah

Placing these landscape features on theoretical maps is not difficult, but positioning them correctly in terrain that is not the actual river Sidon setting of the Book of Mormon lands would be a challenge. All the recorded features of these hills, hidden valleys and banks align in a remarkable way with the terrain of our proposed hill Riplah along the Rio San Ignacio in Baja California and at the required relative locations. The banks of the river at this hill position are two to three hundred feet high and a sufficient distance from the river’s edge to provide an enclosed area for entrapping the Lamanite army. There are also hidden valleys in the recorded locations. The early Jesuit fathers often mentioned the hidden valleys of Baja California that could not be seen until they were stumbled upon—valleys sometimes with isolated settlements (see our topic article, The Narrow Strip of Wilderness: Spatial Features, Orientation and Recorded Journeys). It is striking to us that not only do all the features and the relative locations of hill Manti, hill Amnihu and hill Riplah in Baja California match the Book of Mormon record, but along this stretch of the east flank of the Rio San Ignacio, these three hills are the only hills. There are no other choices. Therefore, it is not possible to be selective when attempting to make the most desirable match among a number of alternates, nor do we need other choices.