While visiting family in Utah, I stopped by Temple Square. I was planning to attend a session in the Salt Lake Temple, but I forgot to bring nice clothes. I only had jeans. So we walked around the grounds and checked out the Salt Lake Temple model — an 88 inch model of the temple at the South Visitors’ Center on Temple Square that shows cut-away sections of the rooms in perfect detail — the large assembly hall, the rooms where the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve meet, the baptistry and ordinance rooms — There’s even working chandeliers, furniture and paintings on the walls.
Anyone can tour a temple before it’s dedication, but after that, only LDS members with a temple recommend can enter. The Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in 1893, when approximately 5,000 people toured the temple.
Construction began on the temple under the direction of Brigham Young in 1853 and was completed 40 years later, in 1893.
Read more about the model at the official LDS Newsroom.
