Dakhmeh -ye Zartoshtiyun ( Tower of Silence )

​Let's visit Dakhmeh -ye Zartoshtiyun which was used as a Zoroastrian cemetery which is also called the tower of silnce. The reason for calling it tower of silence is that dead people are considered as silent and the tower as a cemetry is regarded as a tower of silence. It is one of the most famous and most-visited Zoroastrian sites in Yazd which attract thousands of visitors annually.

How Old Is Dakhmeh ye Zartoshtiyun?

On the way to this tower, we can see two round hollow stone towers, one of which is newer than the other one. Since it was difficult to get to the older tower, a newer tower was built. The older tower, named as " Mankji " after its Indian founder's name, was built in 1235 SH with diameter of 15 m. While, the newer tower, named as " Golestan ", was built in 1310 SH with the diameter of 25 m and height of 6 m.

Dakhmeh, A Place for Corpses

Entering the area of the tower, we can see a flat and round area which is covered by huge pieces of stone. This area is consisted of three rings: men, women, and children. 
It is interesting to know that outer ring which is connected to the wall around the tower was allocated to dead bodies of men, the medial ring was allocated to the bodies of women, and the innermost ring was allocated to dead bodies of children.

Zoroastrians believe that earth is pure and clean and coprses are polluted, so they did not bury the corpses in order to prevent the earth from getting polluted. They would let the dead bodies be defleshed which means getting rid of pollution and getting purified.

Dead bodies were placed on these stones to be defleshed by buzzards. After the bones of the dead bodies were completely dried, they were put in a well in the middle of the tower named bone well to be converted into soil. Here, it can be seen that everybody whether rich or poor would be same at the bottom of the well.

All the burial works from putting the dead body into the tower to its disappearance took around 6 - 12 months. It was customary to the relatives of the dead person to put on special white clothes and mourn for three days in the dilapidated buildings near the tower called " Khyle ".

Dakhme -ye Zartoshtiyun in The Lovers' Wind 

Interestingly, Yazd Dakhme -ye Zartoshtiyun was included in a documentary film entitled " The lovers' wind " by Albert Lamorisse in 1970. This tower was active in the time of the film. So, it can be said that it is less than 50 years that Zoroastrians bury their dead bodies due to the extension of the city and air pollution.

Cham tower of silence ( Taft , Cham Village ), Firuzabad tower of silence ( Yazd ), and Ardakan tower of silence are some other towers of silence in Yazd province.
Dakhme -ye Zartoshtiyun was registered in Iran National Monuments in 2002 with registration no. 6312.
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