THE KAABA OF ZOROASTER (KABE-YE ZARDUSH OR KABA-YE ZARTUST)

In the face of these tombs, there is a square square, half buried. Historians are reluctant to comment on the function of the building: a tower of the fire achaemenid, a place for the Avesta, the sacred book of the zoroastrianism, a morgue to momifier kings, a chamber of guardian of the tombs… The most Plausible hypothesis would be that of a temple hosting the sacred fire of the Achéménides.

A little further, along the cliff, ancient Zoroastrians ossuaries appear, dug on the mountain side. The Zoroastrians never exposed their dead on earth, judged sacred as fire and water but deposited them on a hard rock… This ritual, unlike the practice of incineration, current in ancient and modern India, aimed to preserve the ambient environment of any contact with the impurity of carrion. A practice that perhaps explains the construction of inaccessible tombs dug on both rock and achéménides kings.

See also at the end of the cliff, a first sassanide relief retraçant the inauguration of the first king Sassanide Ardachir I (224-241 apr. ). On horseback, he receives the crown of the hand of Ahura Mazda, also represented on his mount. Under the hooves of their respective horses, Artaban V, the last Parthian king, and Addition, the evil god, are trampled.

The second bas-relief evokes a king king, Bahram II (276-293 Apr. ), surrounded by family members and dignitaries. This bas-relief, of great value, covers a much older élamite engraving, which only remains the two characters appearing at the ends. It is one of the few visible mesopotamians representations, dating from approximately th to th centuries before our era.