The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. The Book of Mormon is the earliest of the unique writings of the Latter-day Saint movement, the denominations of which typically regard the text primarily as scripture, and secondarily as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as 'reformed Egyptian' engraved on golden plates. Smith said that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in the Hill Cumorah in present-day Manchester, New York, before his death, and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827 as an angel, revealing the location of the plates, and instructing him to translate the plates into English for use in the restoration of Christ's true church in the latter days