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. 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 going especially in the cold winters on the steppes of Central Asia when the Indo-Europeans led a nomadic life, and fire was a source of warmth, light and comfort. The Iranians began calling fire the Atas Yazata (divinity) and began giving it offerings in return for its constant help. The ceremony accompanying recitation of the Yasna Haptanghaiti seems to originate in pre-Zoroastrian times where priests offered libations to fire and water.