Lehi's group continued to travel southeastward along the shores of the Red Sea. During this leg of the journey, Lehi's cousin, Ishmael, died. This caused huge dissension among the group. Ishmael's daughters and sons, in their grief, began to speak out against Lehi for bringing them out to suffer in the wilderness. Of course, Laman and Lemuel, ever quick to complain, joined them. They didn't believe that Jerusalem was in any danger, although Lehi and Nephi by that time knew through revelation from the LORD, that it had already fallen (587 BC, about 5 years after Lehi left Jerusalem.)
The Hiltons suggest that the possible site of Ishamel's death was the city now known as Al Qunfudhah in the southernmost part of Saudi Arabia. The picture above is of the ruins of the "old town" of Al Qunfudhah. Whether or not it is the same place Lehi visited is only conjecture.
The other possible site of Ishmael's death is just across the border in present-day Yemen: Nihm. Nephi wrote that Ishmael was buried in a place called Nahom. It is the only site along the trail that was not renamed by Lehi, but called by it's existing name. Nihm and Nahom in pronunciation are similar enough to suspect that they may have been the same place 
Immediately following Ishmael's death, Lehi turned due eastward following the guidance from the Liahona. This abrupt change of direction could have occurred from either Al Qunfudhah or Nihm because those sites are close to one another. This led them to their final destination on the Arabian Peninsula: the area now known as Salalah, in the Nation of Oman.
Text copyright June 2013 Gebara Education
Picture of the old city from www.saudiarabian.tv
Picture of the map of Al Qunfudhah from www.wikimedia.com
Picture of the map of Nihm from www.ideumea.org
Picture of Lehi's possible trail from www.alexbarclay.talktalk.net
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