Nephi recorded his personal trek experiences
of traveling 3 days “in the wilderness in the borders which are nearer the Red
Sea,” but a thousand years later, when Mormon wrote an introductory heading to
Nephi’s record, Mormon generalized by simply saying Lehi took “three days’
journey into the wilderness with his family.” Mormon had no personal knowledge of
the geography of Arabia, thus his introduction to Nephi’s record was a non-specific
summary of what he had read in Nephi’s account, but it confuses some modern
readers into thinking the whole trip from Jerusalem to the Valley of Lemuel took
only three days. (J. Wanless Southwick, Arabia’s Mountain of God: Where
Moses, Elijah, and Lehi Met with God [2024], 23)
Nephi wrote the First Book of
Nephi, but not the heading to the First Book of Nephi, so the summary statement
in the heading that says Lehi took “three days’ journey into the wilderness
with his family” came from Mormon, not Nephi. Nephi’s personal record says the
three days journey was “in the wilderness in the borders which are nearer the Red
Sea.” (Ibid., 64 n. 110)
So, how did the ancients travel
in a day while using camels to carry their provisions and tents? Assuming a standard
walking speed of 3 miles (5km) per hour, a day’s travel with camels would be
about 25 miles (40 km). Alois Musil, a Czech explorer, analyzed records of
various ancient camel treks, noting caravans with merchandise, and migrating
tribes during a lengthy journey, averaged about 14 miles (22 km) per day, but “a
day’s march on the Pilgrim Route [to Mecca] always amounts to about [37 miles]
sixty kilometers”. He commonly noted travel of 28 miles (45 km) per day. (J.
Wanless Southwick, Arabia’s Mountain of God: Where Moses, Elijah, and Lehi Met
with God [2024], 23)
Southwick references in the note the work of Alois Musil, The northern Ḥeǧâz, a
topographical itinerary (American Geographical Society: Oriental
Explorations and Studies 1; New York: Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1926):
From the še’îb of al-ḥrob to Petra is nearly two hundred and twenty
kilometers, so that one day’s march would amount to about twenty-two
kilometers. That is the distance covered in one day by the caravans with
merchandise and by the migrating tribes during a lengthy journey. (pp. 263-64)
The length of the daily march between
Ma ân and Tebûk would be still greater, amounting to nearly one hundred
kilometers, if between these two places there were two and not (as given by
Codex Constantinopolitanus; ibid., p. 250, note b) three night halts (manâhel).
As, however, a day's march on the Pilgrim Route always amounts to about sixty
kilometers, we must agree with the Constantinople codex and assign, not two,
but three manâhel between Ma ân and Tebûk. If the author reckons four halting
places from Tebûk to Tejma, he fixes a day's march at about fifty-five
kilometers and the same also for the march from Tejma to the valley of
al-Kura'. (pp. 327-38)
In the year 1313 A. D.
Abu-l-Feda' (Muhtasar [Adler], Vol. 5, pp. 280 f.) made the journey on a
camel from Mecca to Hama' in twenty-five days. He estimated the time occupied
by his stay at al-Medîna, al-'Ela', Birke Zîza, and Damascus as three days, so
that he traversed the whole distance in twenty-two days but changed his animal
on the journey. From Mecca to Hama' is more than nine hundred kilometers, so
that Abu-l-Feda' must have traveled forty-five kilometers a day. As is clear
from the halting stations mentioned by him, he also proceeded on the highroad
of at-Tebûkijje. (p. 328)
