Jordan River Utah Temple - South Jordan, UT
N 40° 33.967 W 111° 55.878
12T E 421164 N 4491010
The Angel Moroni stands atop the Central Spire of the Jordan River Utah Temple in South Jordan, Utah.
Waymark Code: WMBDTQ
Location: Utah, United States
Date Posted: 05/10/2011
Views: 8
The statue of Moroni symbolized the restoration of the gospel, and since his placement atop the Salt Lake Temple, the golden figure of an angel in flowing robes with a long horn pressed to his lips has become one of the Church’s most recognized symbols.
Early figures of the angel Moroni were made of bronze, copper, or aluminum, and were very heavy. (The bronze figure on the Washington D.C. Temple weighs approximately 2 tons, or 4,000 pounds.) Today’s figures are made from lightweight fiberglass, and weigh only about 300 pounds.
All Moroni figures are gilded, or covered with gold. The process involves rubbing thin sheets of gold onto the figure’s surface. Today that process usually only takes a couple of days, but once the figure is gilded, it must be handled with gloved hands to avoid marring the delicate surface.
Since gold leaf is a perfect conductor of electricity, and because the figures are often placed high above the ground atop a temple’s tallest spire, they are frequently hit by lightning. Today’s figures have a copper rod running through them vertically, which extends several inches above the figure’s head at the top, and attaches to a grounding cable at the bottom. This serves both as a lightning rod and as the mechanism for mounting the figure on the building’s tower.
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