The Sidon River is in the Nephite lands to the east of Zarahemla. The headwaters were near Manti and the hills Amnihu and Riplah (Alma 2:15; 22:27; 43:35). The river can be identified only when the given references can be anchored with certainty
.
     If we lay a straight edge along a map of the ninety-mile stretch along the south coast of Guatemala between the land of Lehi (El Salvador) and the current best estimate for the land Desolation, it will cross rivers and streams sixty-five times. So why is only one river mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon? Rivers are mentioned forty-one times; there are two references to unnamed rivers. All the other references are to the Sidon! Is it possible that Sidon is a generic name?

     One candidate for the Sidon River might be the Coyolate River. The main and longest branch of this river passes by Iximché. That particular branch is named Río La Vega. Further up stream, the name of this branch of the river changes to Río Xayá. Remembering that Sidon is Saida in Hebrew and Arabic, and remembering that the Portugese x is pronounced sh, the name of this river is the Shaya, very close to the Saida (Sidon).

     The first mention of the Sidon is in connection with the hills Amnihu (Hunahpú) and Riplah. The Sidon is also mentioned in connection with the south wilderness. Amnihu is east of the Sidon; Melek is said to be on the west of the Sidon, and Riplah is also on the east of the Sidon (Alma 2:15; 8:3; 43:31, 35). These references can all be explained if the hill Riplah is the volcano Pacaya and a tributary of the Rio María Linda represents the Sidon River.

     There is good reason for this conclusion. The battles in Alma 43 fit very well with Pacaya being Riplah and Zerahemnah’s army arriving from the east, passing to the north between the volcano and the Lake Amatitlán, and engaging the three Nephite armies at the Michatoya branch of the river.

     The meaning of the name Michatoya seems a clincher. It was checked in a Nahuatl Florentine word list. The word for “fish” is michi and the word for “river” is atoya. So Michatoya is “Fish River.” That is a pretty generic name for a river and may be the source of some of the confusion noted above. Looking up saida in the Hebrew lexicon it mentions the biblical name of Bethsaida and explains that Beth means “house” and saida means “fish,” giving Bethsaida the meaning, “house of fish.” Since saida is Sidon in Arabic, the Sidon River is also the “Fish River,” exactly as it is in Nahuatl today, the Michatoya.

     The Michatoya River starts in the highlands near Guatemala City (Ammonihah) and descends southward to Lake Amatitlán (Manti at the headwaters of the Sidon). It then flows southwest for several miles before turning back to the southeast where it joins the Río María Linda on its way to the Pacific Ocean.