About Tower of Silence
in Yazd province
(in IRAN)
Dakhmeh or Qol-ye Khamushan (towers of Silence):
These are three impressive buildings remaining from several
other structures on hilltops outside and in the immediate
vicinity of Yazd (about 15 km to the south-west) where the
bodies of the dead Zoroastrians would be brought to the foot of
the tower so that a ritual ceremony could be held in presence of
the relatives and friends of the deceased.
The body was then carried by the priests into the tower where it
was laid on the flat stones on the ground –thus avoiding that
earth, water, and fire, the divine elements be contaminated, the
soul of the defunct person having already been by Ahura Mazda
In a short time the body would be torn apart by the passing
vultures and crows. The bones were then thrown into a circular
pit in the center of the tower. At the foot of the towers stand
the remains of the buildings, which once served for the funerary
ceremonies
When the towers were still used for Zoroastrian burials, only
the priests were allowed into them. Nowadays, however, some of
them have been opened to the public.
Beneath the hill there are several other disused Zoroastrian
buildings including a defunct well, two small bad-girs, a
kitchen and a lavatory.
The custom of exposing corpses in a tower of silence largely
disappeared throughout the Zoroastrian world around 50 years
ago, at about the same time that the eternal flame was
transferred to the newly constructed Atashkadeh in the center of
Yazd.
As a matter of fact, the towers were used until 1987, after
which all Zoroastrian dead were buried in the cemetery at the
foot of the towers. The site can be reached only by taxi or
private car
...YES! IRAN IS BEAUTIFUL
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