Fire Temple of Yazd

The Fire Temple of Yazd (آتشکده یزد, Ātaškade-ye Yazd), also known as Yazd Atash Behram (Persian: آتش بهرام یزد, Ātaš Bahrām-e Yazd), is a Zoroastrian fire temple in Yazd, Yazd province, Iran. It enshrines the Atash Bahram, meaning “Victorious Fire”, dated to 470 AD. It is one of the nine Atash Bahrams, the only one of the highest-grade fires in Iran, where Zoroastrians have practiced their religion since 400 BC; the other eight Atash Bahrams are in India.^[1][2] According to Aga Rustam Noshiravan Belivani, of Sharifabad, the Anjuman-i Nasiri (elected Zoroastrian officials) opened the Yazd Atash Behram in the 1960s to non-Zoroastrian visitors.

Veneration of fire has its roots in the older practice of keeping a hearth fire burning continually - especially during the bitterly cold winters so characteristic of the steppes of Central Asia, when the early Indo-European-speaking peoples led a nomadic life in which fire was a source of warmth, light and comfort. As time passed, the Iranians began to address fire as Atas Yazata (‘’fire divinity’’), while rewarding it with offerings in return for its constant help. The ceremony accompanying recitation of the Yasna Haptanghaiti seems to originate in pre-Zoroastrian times when priests would offer libations to fire and water. ^[3]