Yazd’s Zoroastrian Crypt or Tower of Silence is probably one of the most scary tourist attractions in Yazd! But do not worry, there is nothing to fear, this place will be more interesting to you than scary. The Zoroastrian crypt of Yazd or Tower of Silence is the place where people lay their dead. Let’s find out more about this mysterious and obscure place. Welcome to the realm of the dead.

Zoroastrian crypt of Yazd

The History of the Zoroastrian Crypt

Also called the Tower of Silence, it reflects the burial customs of the past followed by the followers of Zoroastrianism. This place in the city of Yazd has two crypts called Mankji and Golestan that were used periodically, each for six months. Although Zoroastrians bury the dead nowadays, in past they took them and placed them in the center of these crypts with a special ritual.

Mankji crypt

The Mankaji Limjihatria Crypt, shortly called the Great Mankji Crypt which derives from its creator, is on the left and has a diameter of about 15 meters.

Mankaji’s reputation among Zoroastrians is so significant that Zoroastrians today owe their existence to him. In the year 1910, Mankaj rested in a crypt built by himself in Tehran.

Golestan cryptd

At the time of the Qajar, due to the difficulty of reaching to the Mankaji Crypt, Golestan was built on a smaller size, 15 meters west of the Mankaji Crypt.

Zoroastrian crypt of Yazd

Usage type of crypts

Zoroastrians called the crypts as court which means a divine court and refers to the day of the Last Judgement. Zoroastrians believe that death is a weapon to fight the devil, so the corpses must also be where the devil is present. This place has a disposal process for the dead, including exposure to the sun and scorpion animals and vultures.

The location of these crypts, which are all outside the city, was carefully calculated to prevent contamination to the city by wind and rain. The crypts were also made of raw clay and plaster to prevent soil contamination. According to the Zoroastrians fire, water, soil, and air are four holly elements and should not be contaminated with the disposal of the corpse. For example, Zoroastrians believed that burning would lead into pollution of air and fire and maybe rivers. Or burying would cause contamination of earth and groundwater. In order to prevent contamination of these elements, Zoroastrians chose other ways to treat the corpse and the most important was exposing dead bodies to the animals which led to the construction of silent towers.

Crypt structure

It is not clear that when these buildings were first used but the silent towers that exist today may have the same or similar structure to those used in the past. These towers were either man-made or naturally created by nature. What they have in common is that they must be built outside the city or the village with easy access for animals into the tower, so there was no ceiling on them. They usually had a stone cylindrical tower.

Most of these towers consisted of three circles inside. Men’s bodies were in the outer circle, women’s bodies in the middle circle, and children’s bodies in the inner circle. The dead remained in the crypt until their flesh was eaten by scavengers, vultures, and insects. Due to the large number of animals, the flesh could be eaten in less than half an hour. After the body was deprived of its flesh, the remaining bones were left to dry under the sun. Destruction of meat and drying of bones is considered a purification process.

Address of the Zoroastrian crypt of Yazd

The silent crypt is located 5 kilometers southeast of Yazd, near the Safaiei area, on a sedimentary mountain called Mount Crypt. Yazd as the religious capital of Zoroastrianism and being close to other monuments and historical sites attracts many visitors annually.

Sights around the crypt

Clay, mud, stone, or brick houses located on different sides of the crypt mountain have had different usages during the years. Below we talk about two of them.

House of Salar

One of the most famouse houses around the crypt is Salar House, owned by a man whose name was Salar. He bathed the corpse in this house. Due to various diseases that caused death at that time, this house was located around the crypt, away from the village to protect people from the spread of diseases during bathing.

Fire room

Zoroastrians believed that the spirit would fly over the body for up to three days. So in order to make the dead comfortable in the first three nights and not be afraid, they lit fire in this room from night to morning to enlighten the crypt.

Interesting suggestion

To see the activity of the Zoroastrian crypt in Yazd, you can watch a documentary film, The Lovers’ Wind directed by Albert Lamorisse (1978). This film scans Iran’s stunningly landscape of both natural and manmade wonders. It nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars. There are other crypts in other cities such as Tehran, Kerman, Sirjan, Isfahan and you can visit them too.