This is now the FIRST "vast" proof that the Book of Mormon is exactly what it claims to be.
So, folks you really need to get this one, if not anything else.
We're talking SOLID archeological and historical evidence of EVERYTHING that the Book of Mormon says about Lehi's journey in the Wilderness.

Here you can order the Book for a bit of a discount from FAIR. http://www.fair-lds.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?page=FOS/PROD/BM/CF-1555176410

The Author's website can be found here, as well as the Videos of the Project. (Have watched them, they are GREAT.) http://www.nephiproject.com/

Also, at http://www.fairlds.org when they have it ready, you will be able to get a video of the Presentation on this project by the Author's at the last FAIR conference.
My jaw just dropped that they had discovered so much, and they just gave a basic overview, and yet it was still amazing.
So, for those that are just "curious" you can get that instead of the Book and Videos when it's ready, and not have to pay as much.
But I HIGHLY recommend you get the Book at least, and then maybe get the presentation video offered at FAIR to see a few vid's of the project, cause the Book is amazing stuff.
I'm up to chapter 4 now.....

Anyway, here's the introduction in the book.

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Introduction

We believe we have proven that the first book of Nephi is a true history. Indeed, Nephi's record is the oldest existing record on travel along the Gaza Branch of the ancient Frankincense Trail.
At the time Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, only 25 percent of the seventeen-hundred-mile course that we believe Lehi took through Arabia had been seen and subsequently described in writing by westerners (Verthema, Wild, and Pitt).1 The accounts that did exist lacked specifics and were considered unreliable. It is very unlikely that Joseph Smith had access to these vague accounts. So scanty was the West's knowledge of even this northernmost 25 percent of the trail, the distinguished explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton wrote of the area in 1878, 'The eastern frontier is still unexplored, and we heard of ruins far in the interior."2

Lord Derby wrote of Burton that "before middle age he had compressed into his life more study, more hardship, and more successful enterprise and adventure, than would have sufficed to fill up the existence of half a dozen ordinary men."3 By the time of his death, Burton had mastered forty-one languages. If the brilliant and scholarly Burton, who had traveled to Arabia twice before, considered even the part of the trail that was seen by Verthema, Wild, and Pitt unexplored in 1878, what knowledge could Joseph Smith have had about this land in 1829? How could the precocious twenty-four-year-old Smith, who had no formal education and had never left the farming communities of New England, have known about such obscure and nebulous writings, or for that matter, the other 75 percent of the trail which no westerner had ever reported seeing before 1830?

Indeed, until Arabia opened up to westerners after the discovery of oil, little was known about its interior. What makes this book different from all others on this topic is that we have lived and traveled in Arabia for more than twenty-five years. To the reader it will be obvious that we have spent countless hours in the library researching this topic, but we can truthfully say that it has only been through our desert exploration that we have come to understand and appreciate the teachings that Nephi has passed on to us. Our expeditions off-road have been the highlights of our research, for it was only when we experienced the hardship of desert driving day after day in the harsh climate and desolate terrain, that we were struck by Lehi and his family's epic struggle. We saw first hand the world in which Nephi lived, and the scenery that he described. To experience the hospitality of the Bedouin as we shared meals in their tents has allowed us a glimpse into a world long passed. These experiences, combined with the thousands of miles of travel, have given us an even stronger conviction that Nephi described a real trail and that we have been privileged to follow it.

Our study took six years to complete. To follow Nephi's words down the ancient Frankincense Trail meant venturing into some of the most remote deserts in the world. During a five-year period, we traveled over fifty thousand miles searching for the Lehi-Nephi trail. We have written this book with a three-fold purpose. First, to provide a window into the world of Nephi as he and his family traveled through Arabia twenty-six hundred years ago; second, to share compelling evidences we discovered that confirm that the Book of Mormon is a true story; and third, to give the reader a chance to enjoy some of the wonderful experiences we had while undertaking our field studies. Because of the multipurpose nature of the book, each chapter takes on a different tone: sometimes a light narrative based on our field trips, and other times a seemingly more scholastic discussion on the historical context of an event Nephi described.
Chapter 1 describes the amazing events that surrounded our discovery of the Wadi Tayyib al-Ism, the site we believe is the Valley of Lemuel. It is a true story of discovery.

Chapter 2 takes the reader back to Jerusalem in 600 B.C. We start by describing the religious and political state-of-affairs in the city during Lehi's short ministry and describe why and where Lehi fled into the wilderness. Finally we retrace his route to the Valley of Lemuel.

In chapter 3 we discuss why we know that the Wadi Tayyib al-Ism is the Valley of Lemuel. We describe what it was like living in the valley and how the valley's physical characteristics apply to the images found in Lehi's Dream of the Tree of Life.
How did Lehi cross Arabia? There have been many misconceptions published about this journey. Chapter 4 explains how small parties crossed Arabia in antiquity, and it also explains the route Lehi used to reach the Indian Ocean. We will show you how we confirmed this theory by sharing with you how we discovered the next two sites Nephi described after they left the Valley of Lemuel: the place Shazer and the most fertile parts.

In chapter 5 we continue retracing the family's journey through Arabia, ending at the Indian Ocean. We discuss in detail the bow wood Nephi probably used to construct his bow, and take you deep into Yemen where we believe Ishmael died at Nahom.
We break from our explorations of the trail to discuss how life would have been for the men, women and children along the trail during Lehi's time. In chapter 6 we share some of our modern experience in the desert, coupled with accounts of early western explorers in Arabia. After reading this chapter, we believe you will have a new appreciation for the reasons why all but Nephi murmured.

In chapters 7 and 8 we show you the land and place Bountiful—indeed, the very harbor where Nephi built his ship. Such a claim of new discovery requires a more thorough discussion and, consequently, a more reasoned and scholarly approach.
Finally, we devote the last two chapters to the great men who inspired this book: Nephi, the son of Lehi, and Joseph Smith Jr., who brought it to our attention. We hope that this book will provide for you, as it did for us, a richer appreciation for their contribution to the Book of Mormon.

When we started this project if we had realized the time, effort and difficulties that would have been involved I am not sure that we would have continued with it. One of our greatest frustrations was our inability to get our work taken seriously by LDS scholars. With the exception of Professor S. Kent Brown of Brigham Young University, who was very supportive of our efforts, our work seemed to meet with almost universal disapproval among the community of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) at BYU, who we sent along all of our work. At the time we commenced our project FARMS' position was that Lehi traveled the length of Arabia along the west coast and then crossed the mountains of the Hadramaut to arrive at wadi Sayq. The map on their website of the time illustrated this. After many years of discussion with them about the route and our findings, we were very pleased when we read Professor S. Kent Brown's chapter in FARMS' book Echoes and Evidences of The Book of Mormon, published at the very time we were preparing the final draft for this book. In it Professor Brown includes a map of Lehi's trail, which shows a complete departure from the one previously held by FARMS. A route showed Lehi heading east from Jerusalem to travel the Way of the Wilderness to arrive at wadi Tayyib al Ism, our proposed site for the Valley of Lemuel. The route then travels along the Frankincense Trail, our preferred route to southern Arabia, and turns east at Ramlat Sabatayn, where we feel is the most probable location for Nahom. The route east heads between the mountains and the desert, as we propose in this book, and ends at Dhofar. Even Khor Rori, our suggested site for the place Bountiful where Nephi built his ship, is included. You can imagine our delight. FARMS had made a complete about turn and now supported our model almost in its entirety.

We are excited now that Latter-day Saints have a logical, physically possible and historically proven route by which Lehi could have taken his family to Bountiful, which is in total harmony with the record we find in Nephi's account. We do not believe that anyone on earth could have known all of the intricate details of what Nephi describes unless they had traveled that route themselves nor do we consider it possible, for one moment, that Joseph Smith, or any man alive in his day, could have made it up. The journey described in the first book of the Book of Mormon is neither the product of a fruitful imagination nor the sum total of the world's knowledge of Arabia in Joseph Smith's time. We firmly believe that it could only have been revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith from on high.

Notes
1. Freeth and Winston, Explorers of Arabia.
2. Burton, Gold-Mines ofMidian, 105.
3. Freeth and Winston, Explorers of Arabia, 121.

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The Final Chapter..... (Joseph couldn't have known what he did, and here's why.)

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A Tribute to Joseph Smith

Joseph of Egypt taught that a choice seer would be raised from one of his descendants, and his name would be Joseph (2 Ne. 3:7,15).
This prophecy of Joseph's was realized in Joseph Smith Jr. One great prophet saw the ministry of the other through the mists of four thousands years of time. It was Joseph Smith who was to be the welding link in the house of Joseph, restoring the covenants and returning the blessings to the remnant of the house of Joseph on the Native Americans. But more than this, this seer would not only bring the Lord's gospel of salvation to the members of the House of Joseph, but also to the other members of the House of Israel. (2Ne. 3:13)
The effect that Joseph Smith had on the world can only fully be appreciated when we realize that there is no person on this earth who is not affected by his legacy. For it is by way of the gentiles1 that the house of Israel will be restored in the last days (1 Ne. 15:13).

He was responsible for bringing the gospel to the gentiles and thence to the House of Israel. In this way he is like the great patriarch Abraham, in that through him "shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed" (1 Ne. 15:18). Whether they appreciate it or not, there is no one who is not affected by Joseph Smith. Perhaps then it can now be seen why the Church of Jesus Christ so boldly claims: "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it" (D&C 135:3).
Not since father Adam has a prophet had a mission to all the nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples of the earth. Many have belittled the Prophet Joseph, but if the world only knew the truth, they would be clamoring to hear his words. For "no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. ... He holds the keys of the last dispensation."2

But what does the world make of Joseph Smith . . . prophet or fraud? In this book we have looked at only the smallest part of the knowledge given to mankind by the prophet Joseph Smith. We have concentrated on only eighteen chapters of the Book of Mormon, a mere forty-two pages out of the hundreds and thousands of pages that the Prophet brought forth. Yet there is not a verse that we have discussed that does not speak eloquently of the truthfulness of the revelations given, that does not shout out the testimony that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet. Joseph Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was an ancient record which he translated. His critics have alleged that he, or others, were the true authors, and that the Book of Mormon was the modern work of an imaginative young mind. Yet we will here boldly claim that an examination of the process by which Joseph Smith translated the record and the contents of the book of First Nephi reveals that it is impossible that Joseph Smith could have concocted this story.

Recent evidence indicates that Joseph Smith produced the text of the Book of Mormon in an incredibly short time. While carrying out the process of translation of the text, he also had to carry on his everyday life. During the translation period we know that Joseph also moved on horse and buggy from Harmony to Fayette, made at least one (and possibly two) trips to Colesville thirty miles away, received and recorded thirteen revelations that are now sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, converted and baptized Hyrum and Samuel Smith, preached a few days and baptized several people near Fayette, acquired the Book of Mormon copyright and began making arrangements for the Book of Mormon's publication, sought employment, experienced manifestations with the Three and Eight Witnesses, received the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, as well as taking time to eat, sleep, and perform all the other household chores of a loving husband. Within this busy schedule, Joseph Smith translated the entire Book of Mormon in about sixty-three days, or just under eight and a half pages per day. In other words, all of the Book of First Nephi would have been translated in about a week.

By contrast we have been researching this material for six years and writing for four. We have made numerous field trips each year to examine the terrain and the lands over which Joseph proposed the family traveled. Between us we have covered some fifty thousand miles of desert. Each chapter has been written and rewritten, researched for accuracy, proofread and submitted for criticism, then rewritten again. We have had access to hundreds of works, many of which we cite in this book. Yet our work is only a commentary on Joseph's original, which he wrote, with no time for outside research, in his "spare time" in little over a week.

Each original draft of a chapter of this book had hundreds of errors, even with the help of modern word processing programs, and we spent much of our time proofreading each other's work for errors. We have invariably returned chapters with numerous crossed out or eliminated passages on every page. There has not been a time when we have proofread a chapter, when we have not found errors, no matter how meticulous we were in its preparation. By contrast, Joseph Smith made amazingly few changes in the Book of Mormon.

About a quarter of the original manuscript is held by the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints and the pages hold few crossed out passages. The vast majority of the changes that were made when the book went to publication were spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that his wife, Emma reported that in the late 1820s Joseph
could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well worded letter, let alone dictate a book like the Book of Mormon.... The larger part of this labour [of translation] was done in my presence and where I could see and know what was being done . . . During no part of it did Joseph Smith have any [manuscripts] or book of any kind from which to read or dictate except the metallic [sic] plates which I knew he had. If, he had had anything of the kind he could not have concealed it from me.3

She added, writing to her son:
I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him. This was a usual thing for him to do. It would have been improbable that a learned man could do this; and, for one so ignorant and unlearned as he was, it was simply impossible.4
In concluding our six-year study, we are convinced that Arabia and its history holds straight-forward and compelling evidence that Joseph Smith could not have authored the Book of Mormon. Rather the prophet had to have been amongst the greatest, if not the greatest, translator of ancient script who has ever lived. So perfect is the work that every First Nephi place-name in Arabia can now be readily identified with a potential site that fits with complete harmony the Book of Mormon narrative. Eleven out of eleven identified with a high degree of certainty. Yet in 1830, each of these nine remote desert places, The Borders, River ofLaman, Valley of Lemuel, Shazer, the Most Fertile Parts, the More Fertile Parts, Nahom, Land Bountiful and Place Bountiful (where the ship was built), would have been known only to the Arabs living in the immediate vicinity of each of these places. We had to travel in the desert back roads of Arabia for nearly six years to find these places. How could Joseph Smith have known about them in upstate New York in 1830?

In the course of this book we have discussed, in detail, some eighty-one points obtained from the first book of Nephi pertaining to the geography or topography of the trail and Nephi's ship and voyage. (The eighty-one points are briefly identified at the end of this chapter.)
What is the chance that Joseph Smith could have guessed these eighty-one details of Arabia correctly and gotten them in the correct order and direction from each other? What is the chance of correctly guessing that a river exists in the desert of Saudi Arabia? 1 in 1,000? 1 in 1,000,000? What is the chance of guessing that wild bees found hardly anywhere else in Arabia exist on the south coast of Arabia? That a trail exists on the southern edge of the Rub' al Khali leading east? That two parallel mountain ranges, one near and the other nearer the Red Sea, run along the Red Sea in Midian? Let us be very generous. Let us assume that Joseph Smith had a one in two chance of guessing any one of these eighty-one points. This would mean that:

By the time they reached Shazer, Joseph Smith's chances of having guessed the details correctly would be 1 in 8,388,608. 5
By the time they reached Nahom, Joseph Smith's chances of having guessed the details correctly would be 1 in 140,737,488,355,328.
By the time they reached Bountiful, Joseph Smith's chances of having guessed the details correctly would be 1 in 36,028,797,018,964,000.
By the time they were sailing to the Americas, Joseph Smith's chances of having guessed the details correctly would be 1 in 24 1 ,785,000,000,000,000,000,000.

This number is over 2.4 septillion, which could also be written 2.4 x 1024 (24 with twenty-three zeros after it). Of course the number should be much higher than this because we only gave a 1 in 2 chance for each of these occurrences, and they should in fact be more like 1 in a million or higher. In this case the chance of Joseph Smith guessing these details would be incomprehensible, as if 2.4 septillion isn't! To put this number into some perspective let us undertake a simple exercise. There are estimated to be 5 x 108 (5 followed by eight zeros) stars in our galaxy. The Hubble telescope, the most powerful yet available, has been able to site distant galaxies previously unknown to mankind.

There are now estimated tobeSx 108 galaxies in the universe. That makes 2.5 x 10'7(25 with sixteen zeros after it) stars in existence in all the known universe. To put things in perspective, the chance of Joseph Smith guess-ing all of these points in a row would be far higher than the chances of you and I pointing into the sky and pointing to the exact same star in the exact same galaxy, remembering that there are 500,000,000 stars in our galaxy and the sky contains 500,000,000 galaxies! In fact to give us the same odds as Joseph Smith guessing those eighty-one points we would both have to choose the same star from 100,000 skies, all the same as our own! And that is when we give Joseph Smith a 50/50 chance of guessing each point right. In reality the chances of Joseph Smith having guessed this all is so infinitely small as to have been rationally impossible.

This leads us to the only one possible conclusion, something that the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have claimed for over 150 years. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the Book of Mormon is an ancient book giving a first hand account of a journey through Arabia by Nephi, and that Joseph Smith truly was what he claimed to be: one who was entrusted with the Book of Mormon by God, and who translated it by the powers of Heaven.
Our final tribute to Joseph Smith, the man who brought this record of the Book of Mormon to us though countless trials and hardships, is that it is true. Our appreciation goes out to him across the hands of time.

Notes:

1. The word gentile here is used meaning those individuals who are members of the House of Israel by adoption rather than by birth.
2. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 7:289-90 (October 9, 1859).
3. Emma Smith to Joseph Smith III, 289-90.
4. Ludlow, Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, 24.
5. The probability of two events occurring by chance at the same time is equal to the product of their separate probabilities of occurring at all. In other words, two events that are likely to occur half the time independently are likely to occur jointly only one quarter of the time (.5 x .5 = .25). Reynolds, Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited, 9, 10.
6. Translation of the Turkish inscription on the cover of volume 2 of El-Khazreji, Pearl-Strings.
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The "81 Evidences" listed as a general overview.....

http://www.leeuniverse.org/81evidences.txt