page_title: Temple
section_title: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
hierarchical_section_title: Temple / Christian temples / Latter Day Saint movement / The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
caption_attribution_description: KIRCHE, Utah, USA. Taken by myself with a Canon 10D and 17-40mm f/4 L lens. This is a 3 segment panorama.
context_page_description: A temple is a building reserved for religious or spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. It is typically used for such buildings belonging to all faiths where a more specific term such as church, mosque or synagogue is not generally used in English. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism among religions with many modern followers, as well as other ancient religions such as Ancient Egyptian religion.
  The form and function of temples is thus very variable, though they are often considered by believers to be in some sense the "house" of one or more deities. Typically offerings of some sort are made to the deity, and other rituals enacted, and a special group of clergy maintain, and operate the temple. The degree to which the whole population of believers can access the building varies significantly; often parts or even the whole main building can only be accessed by the clergy. Temples typically have a main building and a larger precinct, which may contain many other buildings, or may be a dome shaped structure, much like an igloo.
  The word comes from Ancient Rome, where a templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur.
context_section_description: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a prolific builder of "Latter-day Saint" or "Mormon" temples. There are 168 dedicated temples (161 currently operating; and 7 previously dedicated, but closed for renovation), 18 under construction, and 39 announced (not yet under construction), for a total of 225. Latter-day Saint temples are reserved for performing and undertaking only the most holy and sacred of covenants and special of ordinances. They are distinct from meeting houses and chapels where weekly worship services are held. The temples are built and kept under strict sacredness and are not to be defiled.  Thus, strict rules apply for entrance, including church membership and regular attendance. During the open-house period after its construction and before its dedication, the temple is open to the public for tours.
caption: LDS temple in Salt Lake City, Utah
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:06 01:43:15", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6338", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1240", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1367"}