CHILPIK KALA

Perched on a hill, the walls of Chilpik Kala dominate the desert steppe. Before being a citadel, it was mainly a tower of silence: a place where the dead were deposited according to Zoroastrian rites. The corpses decomposed in the open air, and only the bones were then recovered by relatives. It was built between the 2nd and 4th centuries, but was still used in the following centuries. The site can be visited if you go to Noukous, from which it is perfectly visible, on the left side of the road.