Fire Temple & Tower of Silence
The Zoroastrians (Parsees) are a religious order founded by Zarathustra and trace their origins to Iran (Persia). Parsees have always been adventurous and enterprising and many have travelled to distant shores to seek their fortunes. In a few places they even build an Agiary (Fire Temple) to cater to the religious and spiritual needs of the Parsee community settled on these foreign shores. One such Agiary was built in Crater adjacent to the Playfair Tank, by Parsee Cowasjee Dinshaw Adenwalla. Inside the Adenwalla Agiary the Atash Padsha (Holy Fire) was first consecrated in 1883. The verdant Parsee Gardens within the compound were established over the top of one of the original tanks which form the Tawila Tanks complex.
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Parsee Temple with Aidrous Mosque in background. The Tower of Silence is higher up behind the temple on a plateau.
The Tower of Silence, also known as dakhma, dokhma or doongerwadi, is a circular raised structure used by Parsees (Zoroastrians) for exposure of the dead. Zoroastrians consider a dead body to be 'nasu', unclean and according to tradition, the purpose of exposure is to preclude the pollution of earth or fire. The corpse is placed atop a tower and so exposed to the sun and to birds of prey. In Aden these birds would have been the kite hawks and crows. Bodies are arranged in three rings: men around the outside, women in the second circle, and children in the innermost ring. The ritual precinct may only be entered by a special class of pallbearers. Once the bones have been bleached by the sun and wind, which can take as long as a year, they are collected in an ossuary pit at the center of the tower.
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The Tower of Silence in Crater was built by local businessman and philanthropist, Cowasjee Dinshaw Adenwalla, himself a Parsee. The tower is located 200 metres south of the Tawila Tanks, on a small plateau of the Shamsan Range, overlooking the Fire Temple and town of Crater.
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With the advent of communism after 1967, the Agiary, Dakhma and their funds, etc. all became state property. With all the Parsees set to leave Aden, who would take care of the Atash (the eternal fire)? That's when Cowasjee Dinshaw, the great grandson of Cowasjee Dinshaw Adenwalla who had built the Agiary and Dakhma in Aden in the last century, decided that he would not let the Holy Atash, which had sustained and nurtured the community in this land away from home, just die away. Most of the Parsees in Aden had prospered and done very well for themselves, and they strongly believed it was due to the blessings of the Atash which had provided them with spiritual sustenance and was an important focal point of keeping the Parsee community united, alive and energetic.
After much wrangling with the authorities over a prolonged period the Holy Flame was eventually flown out of Aden on 14th November, 1976 bound for Lonvala, India on a chartered Air India Boeing 707 with an all-Parsee crew. As the aircraft took off, the Yemeni officials gave it a 21-gun salute, the sounds of which were heard all over Aden. This signified the end of the Parsee era in Aden.
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Today the disused Tower of Silence is all but forgotten by most locals. The path leading up to it was once carefully marked but today it is littered with old car bodies and other junk. The walls are breached in many places and lend themselves merely as supports for graffiti.
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"The only thing I remember about the temple and gardens was a large clock which filled a whole window and had a face on either side. The "gardens " were a great place for parties and dinners. The last few days of each Parsee year (about the beginning of September in those days) the entire community (about 1000 people) would be invited for dinner. The food and drink were paid for by one of the big businesses - Cowasjee Dinshaw, Bhicajee Cowasjee,Pallonjee Dinshaw etc. who each sponsored one day." ~ Noshir Patel
The Tower of Silence c1935