Waters of Ripliancum

The waters of Ripliancum is the name of a body of water mentioned briefly in the Book of Mormon.

And it came to pass that he came to the waters of Ripliancum, which, by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all; wherefore, when they came to these waters they pitched their tents; and Shiz also pitched his tents near unto them; and therefore on the morrow they did come to battle. (Ether 15:8)

In the Book of Ether the waters were a battleground during the Jaredites final war between the armies of Coriantumr and Shiz. Coriantumr, seeing that his armies were about to fall, fled to the the waters and pitched his tents. Shiz and his army did also, until they came together in a battle so fierce that Coriantumr was injured and fainted from loss of blood. The battles continued and moved elsewhere until all were killed except Coriantumr.

The location of the body of water is not known, though it is interpreted in the scriptures as being large or to exceed all. (See Scripture Index, "Ripliancum, Waters of") Some speculate "large" to mean that the waters were a lake or impassible river, possibly feeding into a waterfall, or an ocean.

The Book of Mormon Onomasticon created through Brigham Young University provides a technical discussion of the geographical name Ripliancum. See Book of Mormon Onomasticon, "RIPLIANCUM".