Mormon Landscape: Temples

Salt Lake City is dominated by Temple Square, site of  the most important Mormon temple in the world. Mormons from around the world make pilgrimages to this temple. Gentiles, as Mormons call non-Mormons, can not enter this holiest of places.

Many Mormons in the United States get married here. The genealogy library and records are housed in separate buildings on Temple Square to help people find family members who have died but who can still be converted to the church after their death -- currently restricted to immediate family members. These conversions take place in this and other temples.

Study the architectural details of the temple. What ideas might lie behind its construction?

Answer: Although the Mormon church had its origin in the United States, it looked to northern European architectural styles for inspiration! But why? Why not develop something truly unique to the United States? Religions, like other institutions, are not consistent or particularly imaginative.

Three temples are older than the one in Salt Lake City. Click on the underlined temples for a photo.