Aqaba. The name itself stirs up visions of Arabian Nights and Aladdin. In Old Testament times, it was known as Ezion-geber. King Solomon's mines were close by as well as ancient smelters for iron and other metals, such as bronze. Because the city is on the coast, Solomon had ships built there, the only attempt of Israel to have a navy of sorts. (1 Kings 9:28) It is 179 miles from Jerusalem, by foot about a week to 10-days' journey. This may well have been the first main stop of Lehi and his family. In 1 Nephi*, chapter 2, we read "And he [Lehi] came down by the borders near the shore of the Red Sea."
But Lehi didn't stay long in Aqaba. He was still on the run from plotters who sought his life and Aqaba was a key city at a crossroad of the trade routes from Eastern Arabia and Egypt. It would not have been a safe place for a semi-permanent camp. So Lehi "traveled in the wilderness in the borders which are nearer the Red Sea." (1 Nephi 2)
72 miles along the coastline from Aqaba is the area known today as Al Beda, Jordon. This would be about a 3-days' journey by caravan. We read in 1 Nephi 2 that "[Lehi] had traveled three days in the wilderness, he pitched his tent in a valley by the side of a river of water." You can see from the map to the left that Aqaba is at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, but Al Beda is actually on the border of the Red Sea. This seems to fit the geography suggested by the text. 
It is interesting to me that in the Book of Mormon, writers always refer to "a river of water," not simply a river. That might seem strange to us who think all rivers contain water, but it is not strange in the desert nor in the Hebrew language. One Hebrew word for river means the desert wadi that only runs during the times of the year when the rains come. These rivers then can become torrents. The other Hebrew word for river refers to rivers that run with water year-'round. Lehi's family may have been traveling at the time of year when the rains come and thus the river was running. He may not have known that it was dry during other times of the year. Or, as the text seems to suggest, it may have been a small river coming from a natural spring as Lehi refers to the water as coming from a fountain. The picture above right is of the Wadi Tayyibal-Ism near the current-day city of Al Beda. It is a small stream, but the green areas on the banks suggest that it may indeed be a river -albeit small - of water.
Lehi named the river after his eldest son, Laman; he named the valley after his second son, Lemuel. Throughout their travels, as was the custom of the Semitic peoples of that time, Lehi named the places they camp with one exception. That exception is Nahom, which he called by the name it already possessed. We will visit Nahom later, for it was an important place in Lehi's travels.
* We are now in the text of the Book of Mormon.
Text copyright June 2013 Gebara Education
Picture of Aqaba from www.yahooimages.com
Map of Aqaba from www.africacruise.com
Picture of WadiTayyibal-Ism from www.nephiproject.com
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