Fire Temples are places of worship in the Zoroastrian religion. They were known as ataskada (“house of fire”) by the Persians but are best known today by their Greek name pyratheia (fire temple). They are thought to have originated from the practice of keeping the hearth fire burning throughout the life of the head of a household.
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Definition
Timeline
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c. 550 BCE - 330 BCEFire temples first appear, according to Greek sources, during the Achaemenid Empire.
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247 BCE - 224 CEFire temples are developed further during the Parthian Empire.
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224 CE - 651 CEFire temples reach their height of development during the Sassanian Empire.
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c. 651 CE - c. 700 CEFire temples are destroyed by invading Muslim Arabs; those not destroyed are converted to mosques.
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c. 700 CE - c. 800 CEZoroastrian adherents (Parsees) flee to India and revive the faith and the fire temple.
