The Towers of Silence are circular-shaped buildings that have funeral customs and symbols for adherents of Zoroastrianism. They find the body of a corpse impure, and not to violate the sacredness of the land, refuse to bury or cremate a body. Instead, lay the corpse on top of a building in the mountains, where vultures come and eat your meat, just after the bones are in contact with lime, so they can disintegrate and thereafter be thrown into the water where the cursor continue on to the sea, not touching the ground as well.
This ancient custom is fading away. In Iran, the original homeland of Zoroastrianism, the last Tower of Silence, Yazd, was closed recently from lack of equipment to keep it human. Now, if a Zoroastrian dies without leaving officially registered their desire to have his body sent to take care of it in India, and the family does not pay expenses, there will be a funeral for him that is in conformity with their faith.
Aerial view of an ancient tower on the outskirts of Yazd, Iran, currently in disuse. For health reasons, in the seventies of last century, was banned in the country funeral rites practiced Zoroastrianism:
The only Tower of Silence still active is located in Mumbai, but even in India, Zoroastrian communities have found it difficult to continue with their traditional funeral ritual, which is costly and difficult by the increasingly rapid disappearance of the vultures. It is feared that the Tower of Silence one day short of the face of the earth, and with it the Zoroastrian religion.
Tower of Silence in Mumbai, India. Photo taken in 1880:
Nowadays, most Zoroastrians, Parsis are they (as they are known in India) or members of the Zoroastrian community of Iran, Pakistan, U.S., UK, Australia and other countries, are cremated and his ashes after death thrown overboard.
The photos below were taken from a Tower of Silence located in India, in late 1990:
