Are the Ancient Trade Routes Relevant?
The ancient trade routes (the so-called Frankincense Trail) that brought incense and other products up from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean region6 connected water sources but also followed desert terrain suitable for camel caravans, as Lehi’s party would also have done. Some early writers assumed that Lehi followed the entire trade route in reverse, eventually arriving at the incense-growing region on the south coast of Arabia, equated with Bountiful. While there is no question that the Lehites must have used the trade routes for a significant distance, the matter is not so simple: to begin with, their time in the wilderness occupied eight years, a distance covered by traders in only three or four months,7 so clearly some extended stops were made by Lehi’s group. Delays and difficulties from seeking tribal permissions and paying taxes are unlikely for a small family group not carrying commercial goods; the Lehites probably attracted scant attention on their journey.8 There would
