In the afternoon we cycled to the Towers of Silence in the outskirts of Yazd. Until the sixties the Zoroastrians placed their dead in this round roofless structures. In zoroastrian belief the elements fire, water, air and soil should be kept pure and clean (nowadays a very reasonable belief) - thus forbidding burying or cremating the dead. In the Towers of Silence the vultures and the sun would take care of the dead bodies until only bones were left.
Today the two towers of Yazd are not used anymore - the dead are buried in graves lined with concrete to prevent contamination of the soil (though the Indian Parses still use their towers in Mumbai).
We arrived at the towers around sunset. They are set on the top of two pretty steep hills with a path to the top winding along the hillside. Even though all signs of death are long gone it was a very impressive sight for me. Without the knowledge of the purpose of the towers it could even have been just a nice hill walk with beautiful views of the city, the mountains and the desert. Beside the two towers some other buildings are preserved pretty well on the foot of the hills - beside many buildings of unknown purpose I could make out a kitchen and a water reservoir with two badgirs (wind towers for keeping the water cool and fresh).
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