Nauvoo Temple - Nauvoo, IL - Frieze Art on Waymarking.com

The Nauvoo Temple is adorned with thirty frieze art sculptures of sunstones. The sunstone was carved out of gray limestone, representing the celestial kingdom, which the Lord compared to the glory of the sun in a revelation to Joseph Smith (see Doctrine and Covenants 76:70; compare 1 Corinthians 15:40-42). The face of the sun rising above the horizon illustrates the concept of restoration. The sunstones were placed as capitals on all thirty columns on the exterior of the Temple.

"The Nauvoo Illinois Temple stands on a high bluff overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River. The majestic building is a faithful reproduction of the original Nauvoo Temple built by Mormon settlers in the 1840s and destroyed by arson fire in 1848 and tornado-force winds in 1850." SOURCE

"The Nauvoo Temple was the second temple constructed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. The church's first temple was completed in Kirtland, Ohio, United States, in 1836. When the main body of the church was forced out of Nauvoo, Illinois, in the winter of 1846, the church attempted to sell the building, finally succeeding in 1848.

In 1937, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reacquired the lot on which the original temple had stood. The Church built a temple on the original site whose exterior is a replica of the first temple, but whose interior is laid out like a modern Latter-day Saint temple. On 27 June 2002, a date that coincided with the 158th anniversary of the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the temple was dedicated as the Nauvoo Illinois Temple." SOURCE