Mardavij Kuboter Khane (Pigeon Tower) - Isfahan
Reasons to Build Pigeon Towers
There are few pigeon towers dotted around Isfahan but there is one located in the city. The Mardavij Kuboter Khane of Isfahan is a renovated tower which sits in a roundabout with the same name.
The main purpose to build them was to attract pigeons to them so that they would nest in the top and their dung would fall to the bottom. Pigeon droppings were used as a fertiliser in order to grow melons in Iran during the Safavid era.
How they Worked
Pigeon towers were often over six stories high and 45 to 75 feet in diameter, these towering structures were filled with a honeycomb of small roosts for the pigeons. These towers were constructed as impenetrable fortresses that could shelter the pigeons from predators. The towers would open once a year to collect their droppings for harvesting the crops.
Probably, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience for the people to collect the pigeon droppings which accumulated for a whole year. But a bumper harvest at the end of the season was the reward, they care about. Today, due to the use of artificial fertilizer the role of these towers has declined. Most of these towers are in ruins but government of Iran has started to renovate them and one in Isfahan is an example of that drive.
