A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Lehi-Nephi, City of
LEHI-NEPHI, OR NEPHI, CITY OF. The capital city of the land occupied by the Nephites, for a period of uncertain length, immediately preceding the exodus of the righteous portion of the race to Zarahemla, under Mosiah I, rather more than two hundred years before Christ. It is supposed to have been situated in the region known to moderns as Ecuador. When the Nephites evacuated this city, the Lamanites took possession of it, and held it, until, by treaty between king Laman and Zeniff, it was, with the surrounding district, ceded to the Nephite colony that had returned from Zarahemla. It now became the chief city of this branch of the race, and Zeniff, Noah and Limhi reigned there as kings. The Nephites, finding that the indolent Lamanites had permitted it to fall into decay, went to work to repair its walls and residences, and in the days of king Noah it was greatly beautified and improved. Among its other buildings it contained a temple, near to which king Noah built a high tower. It was in this city that Abinadi was martyred, and on its outskirts, shortly after, Alma, the elder, established a Christian Church at the waters of Mormon. Lehi-Nephi was again evacuated by the Nephites, B. C. 122; when it was again possessed by the Lamanites, and was made by them the capital of the whole land of Nephi, and the abode of their head king. Aaron, the son of Mosiah, found the chief monarch (the father of Lamoni) residing there when he went up to the land of Nephi to preach the gospel to the Lamanites (about B. C. 85). Lehi and Nephi, the sons of Helaman, were cast into prison in this city, when they ministered among the Lamanites; and it was in this prison that there was such a glorious manifestation of the power of God in their behalf, that resulted in the conversion of so many thousand Lamanites. (B C. 30.)