A region described as a “land of many waters, rivers and fountains” was the final northern area the Nephites were driven to after the Lamanites had taken possession of the land of Desolation (Morm. 4:19-22). The hill Cumorah, within the land of Cumorah, was located in this “land of many waters, rivers, and fountains” (Morm. 6:4). The mention of many waters, rivers and fountains is in contrast to the lands to the south which appear to be more arid and less watered than this northern land. In the lands to the south only a single river is mentioned, the river Sidon, and a few fountains. In the north these identical water features are described as “many.” (See The Land of Nephi: the Waters of Mormon and The River Sidon in our main article, An Approach to the Book of Mormon Geography, and also the topic, Bodies of Water)

The land of Cumorah, where the Nephite civilization was destroyed, was close to an area the Jaredites called Ablom. Omer, a Jaredite king, was directed by the Lord and “traveled many days, and came over and passed by the hill of Shim, and came over by the place where the Nephites were destroyed [the land of Cumorah], and from thence eastward, and came to a place which was called Ablom, by the seashore” (Ether 9:3). The seashore at the ending of Omer’s eastward journey we assume to be the sea east, suggesting the hill Cumorah, within the land of Cumorah, was near this same eastern sea coast.

Because the armies of Mormon were forced northward from the land of Desolation to the “land of many waters,” we believe that Ablom by the seashore was a place along the same sea east that bordered the land of Desolation. This would also suggest the sea east on the eastern borders of the land of Desolation, the narrow neck of land, the land of Bountiful, and all the other lands to the south, would continue northward to form the eastern border of the “land of many waters.”

One of the areas the Jaredites occupied was the land known to the Nephites as the “land of many waters” (Ether 9:3-35). And within the Jaredite record, Moroni identifies a body of water known as “Ripliancum, which, by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all” (Ether 15:8). Assuming the sea towards the west is the expansive body of water crossed by Lehi’s family, we would suggest that this western sea the Nephites called the “sea west” is the same large body of water that the Jaredites named “Ripliancum.”

Combining the reality of a sea on the east of the land of many waters and a large body of water, to exceed all, on the west of this same area, we would conclude that the sea east and the sea west continued northward of the land of Desolation and bordered the area known as the “land of many waters.”