# Where is this "temple" - LA area?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 26, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035 "2015-03-26T16:13:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/1 "2015-03-26T16:13:49Z")
I am trying to locate a large “temple” sort of structure that is almost certainly within the LA region - it was used in a 1980s movie and even a member of the creative team can’t remember where the scene was shot. I can post a picture, but I suspect someone in the Dopeverse knows it right offhand.
It’s a very tall domed circular forum, maybe 100 feet across, done in brownish tones and marbles, with a very tall sculpture in the center of four vaguely angelic beings standing back to back and holding a mosaic sphere over their heads. One person thought it might be at Forest Lawn. It certainly has that dreary cemetery look to it, but it’s of vast scale.
Good enough? I’ll post a pic in a while if no one can identify this from the description.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/2 "2015-03-26T16:28:39Z")
Aw, I’m disappointed. 14 minutes and no answer? Humph.
[**Pix here.**](http://imgur.com/a/dqPsN) I am only pretty-sure that the exterior shot is the same building.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/3 "2015-03-26T16:33:42Z")
The exterior shot looks like [the Griffith Observatory](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Griffith_observatory.jpg) to me.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/4 "2015-03-26T16:37:44Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> The exterior shot looks like [the Griffith Observatory](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Griffith_observatory.jpg) to me.
Agree; it’s a stock location for LA work. That’s why I qualified that shot.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/5 "2015-03-26T16:40:43Z")
That was my guess even before looking at the link. They used the observatory for the final shootout at the end of The Rocketeer, for example.
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### Author:  [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/6 "2015-03-26T16:57:38Z")
I always think of Rebel Without a Cause.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/7 "2015-03-26T16:58:08Z")
The interior of Griffith is a loose match for the description, but not the photos. I think that interior is bigger than the Griffith dome.
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### Author:  [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/8 "2015-03-26T17:06:39Z")
The exterior is clearly Griffith, but I’ve been in any part of the inside that looks like the interior photos. Now I’m intrigued.
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/9 "2015-03-26T17:44:56Z")
There’s no doubt that the exterior picture is the Griffith Observatory. Perhaps the interior pictures were not taken at the same location?
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/10 "2015-03-26T17:51:36Z")
The interior is in the Natural History Museum in Expo Park.
> **[Rotunda Ceremony - Natural History Museum Los Angeles | Stained glass mosaic,...](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/94153448433094906/)**
>
> Jul 26, 2013 - Posts about Dinosaurs written by eventsnhmla
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### Author:  [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/11 "2015-03-26T17:51:40Z")
Hot damn, I got it!
It’s the LA County Natural History Museum’s Rotunda. See [here](http://flashlightnews.org/story3144.shtml), for example.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/12 "2015-03-26T18:32:06Z")
Gratitude, ninja-swamis.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-this-temple-la-area/716035/13 "2015-03-26T18:35:35Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Aw, I’m disappointed. 14 minutes and no answer? Humph.
But a dozen replies in 2 hours. Will you retract your “Humph” now?