Yazd is Iran’s unofficial capital of Zoroastrianism; one of the world’s oldest continuously practiced religions and Persia’s dominant religion before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century.

Zoroastrianism is a ‘multi-faceted faith centered on a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate conquest of evil. Historical features of Zoroastrianism, such as messianism, judgment after death, heaven and hell, and free will may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including Second Temple Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy, Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and Buddhism’ (Wikipedia).

Zoroastrians worship at fire temples where flames are kept burning for centuries. The flame in Yazd, seen below, has been burning continuously for 1500 years.

Historically, Zoroastrians took their dead out of the cities where their bodies were first prepared by a Zoroastrian priest and then placed at the top of a ‘Tower of Silence’. Here, the flesh of the body was picked off by vultures until only the purified bones remained. The doctrinal rationale for this exposure of the dead body is that it avoids contact with Earth, Water, or Fire, all three of which are considered sacred in the Zoroastrian religion.

Amongst the nearby ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid empire, we also see the use of the symbol in the city centre and on the nearby tombs of its kings.