Cumorah (also called
Mormon Hill) is a
drumlinA drumlin is an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Its long axis is parallel with the movement of the ice, with the blunter end facing into the glacial movement...
near
ManchesterManchester is a town in Ontario County, New York, USA. The population was 9,258 at the 2000 census. The town was named after one of its villages.The Town of Manchester includes a village called Manchester. The town is northeast of Canandaigua, NY....
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where
Joseph Smith, Jr.Joseph Smith, Jr. was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure during the 1830s and 1840s...
said he found a set of
golden platesAccording to the theology of Latter Day Saint movement churches, the golden plates are a book of bound and engraved metal plates that Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source for the Book of Mormon...
which he translated and published as the
Book of MormonThe Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi...
.
The
Book of MormonThe Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi...
describes the hill Cumorah as a place where two hundred fifty thousand
NephiteThe Nephites are the de facto protagonists of the Book of Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, a prophet who, according to the text, left Jerusalem at the urging of God circa 600 BC and traveled with his family to...
soldiers were killed in a final battle with the
LamaniteAccording to the Book of Mormon, a Lamanite is a descendent of one of four groups of settlers of the ancient Americas. The other three groups are the Jaredites, Mulekites, and Nephites...
s, and where centuries earlier, the last battle of the Jaredites took place, which destroyed their civilization.
Cumorah (also called
Mormon Hill) is a
drumlinA drumlin is an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Its long axis is parallel with the movement of the ice, with the blunter end facing into the glacial movement...
near
ManchesterManchester is a town in Ontario County, New York, USA. The population was 9,258 at the 2000 census. The town was named after one of its villages.The Town of Manchester includes a village called Manchester. The town is northeast of Canandaigua, NY....
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where
Joseph Smith, Jr.Joseph Smith, Jr. was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure during the 1830s and 1840s...
said he found a set of
golden platesAccording to the theology of Latter Day Saint movement churches, the golden plates are a book of bound and engraved metal plates that Joseph Smith, Jr. said was his source for the Book of Mormon...
which he translated and published as the
Book of MormonThe Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi...
.
The
Book of MormonThe Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi...
describes the hill Cumorah as a place where two hundred fifty thousand
NephiteThe Nephites are the de facto protagonists of the Book of Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, a prophet who, according to the text, left Jerusalem at the urging of God circa 600 BC and traveled with his family to...
soldiers were killed in a final battle with the
LamaniteAccording to the Book of Mormon, a Lamanite is a descendent of one of four groups of settlers of the ancient Americas. The other three groups are the Jaredites, Mulekites, and Nephites...
s, and where centuries earlier, the last battle of the Jaredites took place, which destroyed their civilization. The Nephites called the hill "Cumorah", and the Jaredites called the hill "
Ramah" and "
Shim".
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no official position on the geography of the
Book of MormonThe Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi...
, nor is there any official claim of correspondence between the hill mentioned in the Book of Mormon and the hill in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. A number of
Mormon