The Mormon Temple in Kensington, Md., is visible from the Beltway. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)

For anyone who drives around the Capital Beltway, the soaring white spires are a familiar sight — and yet a complete mystery to most.

Maryland children have grown up believing that the fairytale building was Disneyland, or heaven itself. Drivers sitting in maddening I-495 traffic have likened the building to the Emerald City so often that pranksters started writing “Surrender Dorothy” on the nearby bridge.

Finally, for the first time since the 1970s, all those curious onlookers will finally have their chance to peek inside.

It’s not heaven or Oz; it’s the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kensington. The Mormon Church allows only members inside its 156 working temples. So, since this one opened in 1974, only the Washington area’s approximately 40,000 Mormons have had access.

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