KnoWhy #259 - Has the Location of Nephi’s Bountiful Been Discovered? (1 Nephi 17:5)

After journeying in the wilderness for the “space of many years,” Lehi and his family eventually came to a coastal region which they “called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey.” In 1950, Hugh Nibley suggested that the lush Dhofar region in southern Oman might be where Bountiful could be located in the real world. In 1994, Warren Aston developed 12 criteria, based on Nephi’s account, which could possibly help identify the specific area in Dhofar where Lehi and his family had camped. After surveying the region’s entire coastland, Aston discovered a sea inlet known as Khor Kharfot. Surprisingly, Khor Kharfot complies with all 12 of Aston’s criteria remarkably well, a development which has led many LDS scholars to now accept it as the most likely location for Nephi’s Bountiful.