This is a place that has struck me deeply. One of those sites that are beyond the definition of "Tourist attraction". In my view, visitors should come here silently, as if they were in a graveyard. I long thought to what the Towers of Silence have represented for Yazd population over the course of many centuries. I almost felt the pain and sadness, but also the composure, of the people who came here with their beloved dead.

This is the topic. The Towers of Silence, in such areas, have represented for centuries the only way to deal with the "problem" associated to the bodies of deceased people.

This is a totally rocky area. There is no soil for burials, there is no timber for cremations. The bodies of the deceased are therefore a serious risk due to the diseases and epidemics that they may arise from them. What to do? What happened on the towers of silence may seem barbarous to us, but we have to think as if we were in the past. As if we were a resident of ancient Yazd.

In the Towers of Silence, dead bodies were carried so that vultures could destroy them. I will not go within the details as I think people must come here with a good local guide that can explain every single aspect of this site, where everything was arranged for to the last journey. Even the Achaemenid emperors, according to the prescriptions of Zoroastrian worship, were subjected to such a treatment, so that only their bones were placed in the tombs.

The deceased were brought here at night when the temperature was lower. The relatives who carried them found here what they needed to rest and wash. The staff had a very specific procedure to accomplish this sad task, a procedure that I do not describe here as it needs to be described there.

I was very surprised to read reviews on popular travel sites talking about the panorama that you can see from the towers, the warmth, the stairs and so on. Is now clear that the superficiality of average travelers reaches unthinkable levels.

You will not visit the Towers of Silence to observe the panorama. You will come here to see, imagine, feel and understand with your heart (more than with your senses) a millenary rite, harrowing but indispensable to the ancient inhabitants of this place.

If you want information on a good local guide for Yazd and the Towers of Silence, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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