“A place of worship, most frequently associated with making sacrifices and entering into or renewing covenants. Always found in temples, altars are a place of the divine presence. Anciently, they were built on raised ground so that there was a ritual ascent as one approached the place of worship. Among the Book of Mormon peoples they were a place where one called upon God and confessed sins (Alma 17:4). In the Bible they are clearly seen as the place from which prayers were to ascend to heaven” (McConkie, Gospel Symbolism, 251).