"Nearly Surrounded by Water” And the “Small Neck of Land:” An Analysis of What Mormon Meant and What He Did Not Mean

I am not sure what the term “nearly surrounded by water” means in the Book of Mormon. However, the objective of this article is to limit the misconceptions and impossible speculations regarding this geographic enigma as it pertains to many proposed geographies of the Book of Mormon and to better understand its relationship to the “small neck of Land.”

Hopefully, this article will facilitate our quest in understanding these terms and others like “isle of the sea,” “east to the west sea,” and the all-important “line” by the west sea. This is by no means an exhaustive study, but it is sufficient to satisfy my commitment to understand the geography of the Book of Mormon pertaining to these terms.