In 72 B.C., Moroni, chief captain of the Nephite armies, prepared the cities to withstand Lamanite attacks by “erecting small forts, or places of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land” (Alma 48:8). These freestanding “walls of stone” are the only significant stone construction mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The Nephite stone walls, built “round about their cities and the borders of their lands,” could have been rather extensive. Because of their hasty construction to meet an urgent security need, these walls most likely would have been formed from stacked, uncut stones and not dressed stones prepared by skilled masons. All of these extensive defense preparations were accomplished within a period of a year or two (see Alma 43 to 48). These quickly built stone walls did not provide the required protection and were supplemented with “banks of earth,” “timbers,” “towers” and “works of pickets” (Alma 48:8; 49:2, 4, 19, 22; 50:4–5).  Moroni’s armies dug “up heaps of earth round about all the cities, throughout all the land which was possessed by the Nephites.” On the “top of these ridges of earth he caused that there should be timbers, yea, works of timbers built up to the height of a man, round about the cities,” and “upon those works of timbers there should be a frame of pickets built upon the timbers round about; and they were strong and high.” Note that these “works of timbers” were the “height of a man,” about five to six feet high (Alma 50:2). Moroni “caused towers to be erected that overlooked those works of pickets, and he caused places of security to be built upon those towers, that the stones and the arrows of the Lamanites could not hurt them” (Alma 50:1–3).  “And he caused that they should build a breastwork of timbers upon the inner bank of the ditch; and they cast up dirt out of the ditch against the breastwork of timbers; and thus they did cause the Lamanites to labor until they had encircled the city of Bountiful round about with a strong wall of timbers and earth, to an exceeding height” (Alma 53:4). High banks of earth were “thrown up,” for security by digging deep ditches (Alma 49:18). These works of “timber” and “earth” were an essential supplement to the limited protection of “stone walls.”

Stones were prepared by the Nephites so they could be “cast” from “the top” of the city walls “according to their pleasure and their strength, and slay [anyone] who should attempt to approach near the walls of the city” (Alma 50:5). Strong “cords and ladders” were hastily prepared by Captain Moroni so that his men could be “let down from the top of the wall into the inner part of the wall,” suggesting the walls were one to two stories high (Alma 62:21). And Captain Teancum “in his anger did go forth into the camp of the Lamanites, and did let himself down over the walls of the city” (Alma 62:36).

King Benjamin, because of “the multitude being so great,” could not teach all the people “within the walls of the temple” (Mosiah 2:7). This suggests that these “walls of the temple” were walls surrounding the temple in Zarahemla and not the walls forming the actual temple structure. The cities in the land of Nephi had walls (Mosiah 7:10; 21:19). King Noah repaired “the walls of the city, yea, even the walls of the city of Lehi-Nephi, and the city of Shilom” (Mosiah 9:8). The city of Nephi had a “back pass, through the back wall, on the back side of the city,” suggesting the city wall had at least two entrances (Mosiah 22:6).

Samuel the Lamanite spoke to the people in Zarahemla from “the walls of the city,” but the people “could not hit him with their stones neither with their arrows” (Hel. 16:1–2). There is no mention of the height of these city walls nor if they were made of stone or timber or a combination of the two materials. It was the people’s expectation that their stones and arrows would hit Samuel at that height, but it appears a heaven-sent power averted their stones and arrows. Note that Samuel “cast himself down from the wall, and did flee out of their lands,” suggesting that the height of the walls would not prevent his ability to successfully jump and flee, possibly six to eight feet (Hel. 16:7). Samuel’s unwelcome exhortation is often depicted by artists as taking place upon an extremely high, masonry stone wall, but there is no evidence in the Book of Mormon record to support this view.

Freestanding stone walls generally serve two purposes: To provide a protective barrier for towns, cities and animals; or to visibly define boundaries of settlements, fields and lands. The practice of encircling cities and fields with stone walls and defining borders is not unlike this practice in the Biblical lands (see, for example, Deut. 3:5; 2 Sam. 20:15; 2 Chr. 33:14). One can see evidence of this today when traveling through not only the Biblical lands but nearly all agricultural landscapes across the world. The constructing of stone walls also provides a practical use for strewn rocks gathered from agricultural fields. In Baja California there are rock walls around small towns that appear to have been placed there hundreds of years ago. These stone walls also define property lines.

Without continuous repair, freestanding stone walls often tumble into heaps of stones that others might haul away for alternative uses. It is most significant that stone construction in the Book of Mormon is only mentioned with some freestanding walls, and never in association with the construction of buildings.