Interior photos of the Durban South Africa Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were released to the public on Jan. 20.
An open house begins Wednesday, Jan. 22, and runs through Saturday, Feb. 1, excluding Sunday, Jan. 26. The temple is located atop a grassy knoll about 12 miles north of the Durban city center at 2 Izinga Drive, Izinga Ridge 4021 Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal. The temple site is 14.49 acres.
The Durban South Africa Temple will be dedicated on Sunday, Feb. 16, in three sessions, and a youth devotional will be held the evening prior. The youth devotional and all dedicatory sessions will be broadcast to select meetinghouses in the temple district.
The temple was announced by President Thomas S. Monson on Oct. 1, 2011. Elder Carl B. Cook, then-president of the Africa Southeast Area, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony on April 9, 2016.
Inspired by the buildings of downtown Durban, the temple design features fluted stone panels accenting the window openings. Simple geometric carvings highlighting the African roots of the region can be found in the center of the fluting. Custom-made rugs have a South African basket-weaving design and the Italian marble flooring contains tribal geometric patterns. The temple has a pitched red clay tile roof similar to the houses in the surrounding Izinga neighborhood.
The temple landscape features thousands of indigenous trees and shrubs, including king palms, the coral tree, South African aloes and the strelitza juncea, a narrow-leaved bird of paradise. Decorative motifs of the national flower of South Africa, the king protea, can be seen on the temple entry gates, art glass and stone benches.
This temple is the second in the country of South Africa. The Johannesburg South Africa Temple was dedicated in 1985.
