KEEPING THE FAITH

Yazd is the birthplace of Zoroastrianism, Iran’s oldest religion. Dating back some 4000 years, it was the state religion before the arrival of Islam, although it’s thought that there are only around 15,000 practising Zoroastrians left in the country today. We glimpse their ancient traditions at the Towers of Silence, a series of circular clay structures where the dead were once laid out to be picked clean by scavenger birds.