Dakhmeh-ye Zartoshtiyun

On the southern outskirts of Yazd two hills rise from the flat desert, each crowned with a cylindrical Zoroastrian tower. Until the middle of the twentieth century corpses were placed within these and other such open towers, allowing birds to pick the bones clean. This method of corpse disposal follows Zoroastrian principles that protect the living from exposure to the illness of the deceased, or to the contaminating process of putrefaction.