The Temple/Theories

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Theories about The Temple

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Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Contents 1 DHARMA Station 2 The Statue 3 Actually a Temple 4 Location

DHARMA Station

• The Temple is a DHARMA Station, it acts as the Magic Box. It has great significance to both the hostiles, Jacob and DHARMA. DHARMA studied its ability to create anything or transport anything.
• The Temple is a DHARMA Station made from a structure of the same origin as the Statue.
• The Temple was some sort of sacred ground to the Hostiles/Others that had unique (time travel/Casimir effect related) properties; when DHARMA arrived on the island, they built a station, there to study/experiment with these properties. This could explain why they became so "hostile" to the DHARMA initiative in the first place, if their "temple" was taken/built over. After the Purge, the Temple was reclaimed by Ben and the Others - perhaps it can only be accessed by those with a spiritual connection to the island, which is what makes it "the last safe place".
• The Temple is a DHARMA bomb shelter. DHARMA was founded during the height of the Cold War, and its members were working on issues related to the Valenzetti Equation. They would have wanted a secure place to continue their work even in the event of nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union.
  • The Island has nothing to do with the US, or the Soviet Union. Not enough people in the "real world" know/knew about the Island for it to be a target of a nuclear bomb.
• The Temple is the "ark" to the Tempest's "flood."
• The Temple is the final DHARMA Station, where the people may go to preserve life
• It is an underground storage facility. The symbol for the Temple on Ben's map looks like a hydraulic lift of some sort on a tunnel/entrance. This could be where Dharma kept all of its long term supplies. If it is undergound and sealable, it would make a great place to hide.

The Statue

• The Temple was made by the same people who made the Four-toed statue and Ruins, possibly the Hostiles.
• The word "temple" refers to the part of the head; this is where the Statue's head is located. (As we only see the foot, another part of its remains may be elsewhere.)
• The Temple is the main building in a ruined ancient city, or a station built to study the city/ruins/statue. The Temple area could serve as a weapons cache or a more defensible position for the Others than the Barracks
  • In regard to your reference of a ruined ancient city, this could be when we finally get to see the buildings that are hinted at in the reflection in the water in the season 4 poster ([1])
    • The buildings depicted in the poster rather resemble a modern city skyline, hinting at the dual nature of the show showing both scenes on the island and of flashfowards off the island.
• The Temple might be near the Four-toed statue, because when Jin soo, Sun and Sayid are going to the barracs zone through the sea, you can see the statue, at north from the barracs. And the temple seems to be north from the barracks across the mountains, beetwen the mountains and the sea shore. Judging by the statue, it must have been a temple built by the original others, and then adapted for the dharma initiative, because it has its own symbol.(all the names of the stations somehow resemble their logo.
  • Dharma talking hold of the temple and separating it with a Sonar Fence from the hostiles, might be one of the many offenses they made to them.

Actually a Temple

• The Temple will resemble the Temple of Apollo, like the columns seen in The Brig.
• The Temple is actually a Temple, something built by the original inhabitants of the Island, pre-existing the Hostiles, and is something we haven't seen before, involving nothing of what we have seen before.
• The DHARMA logo would only indicate that DHARMA knew about its location. Thus, they are not necessarily the people who built it.
• The Temple is truly a temple, a place of worship, which was constructed by the original native inhabitants of the Island (perhaps the ancestors of the Hostiles?) to worship either the Island itself, the Monster, Jacob, or some combination of these entities. The Island has been hinted to have a mind and consciousness of its own, as well as to possess tremendous supernatural powers; furthermore, because the nature and age of both Jacob and the Monster are entirely unknown, it is possible that either, or both, of these beings are old enough and/or powerful enough to have had an ancient temple built in their honor.
• The Temple is the Jewish Temple from the Bible.
• The Temple is where the "ladder to god" is located, in accordance with the 'Jacob's Ladder' story in the Old Testament.

Location

• The Temple is number C5 (11 o' clock position) on the blast door map. This is the crossed out station with "UNKNOWN" written on it. It also has the Latin saying "Sursuma corda" which means "Lift up you hands (to GOD)" which seems like it would fit. It is likely the temple was built before DHARMA, but DHARMA updated/modified for its own purposes. Crossing it out on the blast boor map suggests that it is not a DHARMA built station.
  • The exact latin phrase is "sursum corda", and it means "Lift up your HEARTS".
• The Temple may be near the top of the Island's volcano. This would explain why no main characters have seen it yet. The Island's ancient inhabitants were volcano-worshipers.
  • This is possible, as the map depicts mountains near the area.
    • This is possible, as Ben said it may be the last safe place on the island. The Temple may be guarded by the active volcano.
• The Temple can only be found by those who know where it is, hence Rousseau's extensive mapping of the island hasn't turned up anything yet.
• The Temple does not exist. Ben lied about the Temple so that Rousseau and Karl would be ambushed and shot.
  • He would not tell Richard to lead the Others to a place that doesn't exist. And if that was a code, there is no point in using it twice for two (seemingly) different things.
    • Also, why would Ben want Alex dead?
  • Ben knew that Jack and Locke would take him captive after meeting them at the radio tower, so he told Richard to lead the Others to "the Temple" to ambush anyone he sends there.
    • By what they were saying just before they all sat down for a drink, perhaps Ben knew that The Others would try to defend the Temple, and have them shot. This is quite likley; if they were getting close, there would be people guarding it quite well. We will see more Others introduced later on in the next episodes patrolling this area too.
• It's possible that there are original DHARMA initiative members still alive that took refuge there before the purge.
• The Temple is station C3 or C4 if the BDM has it marked and in the right position.
• The Temple is a secret Dharma station that was not on the blast door map. Ben, after the Purge, drew the map on the blast door map without the temple as to hide it in case of emergency. This is why he calls it the last and only safe place on the Island.
• The Temple is shown to be on mountains on the map that Ben gave to Alex. In the episode "There's No Place Like Home Pt 1," Ben used a mirror to send signals to someone, probably Richard and the Others, up on top of some mountains. This is where the Temple is, as you can clearly see some building on the mountains.