Qualla: Yazd Tower of Silence

Yazd Tower of Silence: Introduction

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ninaras, CC BY 4.0. Fifteen kilometers southeast of Yazd, two stone towers rise from a barren ridge above the desert floor. They are empty now, and have been since 1974, when the city asked the Zoroastrian community to stop using them. Built in the 19th century, they are the most recent expression of a funerary tradition stretching back over two millennia: the dead were carried up the hillside, laid on the tower's open stone platform, and left for vultures to consume. The practice was not neglect. It was reverence. Zoroastrians considered earth, fire, and water sacred elements that must not be polluted by the contamination of death. Burial would defile the soil. Cremation would corrupt the flame. Submersion would poison the water. So they gave their dead to the sky, and the birds did the rest.

Read more: Yazd Tower of Silence on Qualla

Image: Ninaras | CC BY 4.0

Yazd Tower of Silence: The Geometry of the Dead

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit N_Creatures, CC BY 2.0. A dakhma is a circular, raised structure, open to the air, with a carefully ordered interior. The Yazd tower follows the ancient pattern. Three concentric rings of stone beds radiate inward from the tower's rim. Men were placed in the outermost ring, women in the middle, and chil...

Read more: Yazd Tower of Silence on Qualla

Image: N_Creatures | CC BY 2.0

Yazd Tower of Silence: A Faith Older Than Empire

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zenith210 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The funerary traditions surrounding the towers of silence reach back to the Sassanid era of the 3rd through 7th centuries, though the beliefs that underpin them are older still. Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zarathustra, is one of the world's oldest continuously practice...

Read more: Yazd Tower of Silence on Qualla

Image: Zenith210 at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Yazd Tower of Silence: When the Towers Fell Silent

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fabienkhan, CC BY-SA 2.5. The practice of sky burial at the Yazd dakhmas continued into the 20th century, far longer than in most parts of Iran. But in 1974, growing concerns about public health and the city's expanding boundaries led authorities to ask Yazd's Zoroastrian community to cease using the towe...

Read more: Yazd Tower of Silence on Qualla

Image: Fabienkhan | CC BY-SA 2.5

Yazd Tower of Silence: Desert Silence

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Stand at the base of the towers today and the landscape explains the choice of location. The ridge sits well outside the city, elevated above the flat desert plain, exposed to constant wind and unobstructed sun. Vultures once circled above in numbers sufficient to clean a body wi...

Read more: Yazd Tower of Silence on Qualla

Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0