Sven Hedin mentioned in his autobiography about his stealing of three Parsee skulls for research from the Towers of Silence in Iran, he went in with a bag of watermelons during the day time of hot summer when everybody hid in house to avoid the blistering heat, without notice he sneaked in the Tower of Silence and stole three skulls by putting them into watermelon bag and later sent back to Sweden.
Zoroastrianism was the main religion across the Iranian plateau before Islam entered this land, it was one of the first religions to postulate an omnipotent, invisible god, represented as an eternally burning flame in Zoroastrian temple. Zoroastrians refuse to bury or cremate their dead bacause of their belief in purity of elements, both methods would pollute either the earth or sky. the dead were indeed exposed in Tower of Silence to allow vultures clean up the corpses.
In Yazd, the home of Iran's largest community of Zoroastrian, I went to the site, where two Towers of Silence are set on two barren hilltops, there was no one guarded the gate, I hiked up the small hills, and found a small opening in the middle of high wall, stepping on small depressions I climbed up and went in through it, at the centre of tower there is a big concavity where the dead bodies were once placed in sitting position, priest would then observe which eye was taken by vultur first, if it was right eye, the soul would have good future, dim if otherwise.
Zoroastrianism was the main religion across the Iranian plateau before Islam entered this land, it was one of the first religions to postulate an omnipotent, invisible god, represented as an eternally burning flame in Zoroastrian temple. Zoroastrians refuse to bury or cremate their dead bacause of their belief in purity of elements, both methods would pollute either the earth or sky. the dead were indeed exposed in Tower of Silence to allow vultures clean up the corpses.
In Yazd, the home of Iran's largest community of Zoroastrian, I went to the site, where two Towers of Silence are set on two barren hilltops, there was no one guarded the gate, I hiked up the small hills, and found a small opening in the middle of high wall, stepping on small depressions I climbed up and went in through it, at the centre of tower there is a big concavity where the dead bodies were once placed in sitting position, priest would then observe which eye was taken by vultur first, if it was right eye, the soul would have good future, dim if otherwise.
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