What structure is used for Zoroastrian sky burials?

The structure used for traditional Zoroastrian sky burials is called a Tower of Silence, or dakhma. It is a raised, usually circular structure where corpses were exposed to sunlight, wind, and scavenging birds rather than buried, burned, or placed in water.

The practice reflects the Zoroastrian concern that a corpse is ritually polluting and must not contaminate the sacred elements of earth, fire, and water. In many traditional towers, bodies were placed in concentric sections: men in the outer ring, women in the middle ring, and children in the inner ring. After the flesh was removed, the bones were gathered into a central ossuary pit.

“Sky burial” is a useful comparative description, but the Zoroastrian term is excarnation, meaning exposure of a body until natural processes reduce it. The custom is ancient, yet towers themselves are much later than the earliest evidence for corpse exposure. Modern Zoroastrian communities do not all use them; burial, cremation, and other adaptations have become common in some regions.