When people see dovecote or pigeon tower, many of them think of a military fortification. But it is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves.
Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest, varzanehnight.ir wrote.
Why did people build them?
During the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly around the time of the Safavid Dynasty, Iranians built a large number of towers to house pigeons. At its peak, the city of Isfahan had about 3,000 pigeon towers.
Pigeons were important for their eggs, flesh, and droppings. Most importantly, farmers used pigeon droppings to fertilize their fields. But now, every farmer uses chemical fertilizer. It is also said that some people used pigeon’s eggs to make their babies start talking. For example, when a child was old enough to talk but still wasn’t able to, the parents gave him or her pigeon’s eggs to eat to help the process of talking.
Also, since many robbers were stealing crops, the pigeon tower was a safe place to store them.
What does it look like inside?
The typical pigeon tower is cylindrical, constructed of unfired mud brick, lime plaster and gypsum. The towers range from 10 to 22 meters in diameter and stand 18 or more meters high. Because many animals prey on pigeons, the towers were constructed as impenetrable fortresses that could shelter the pigeons from predators. The small size of the entrances prohibits large birds such as hawks, owls or crows from entering.
There are many nests inside the pigeon tower so the pigeon couples could live safely and protect their chicks. When the chicks get old enough they go to a new nest and no longer live with their parents. Varzaneh Pigeon Tower in Isfahan Province contains 8,000 nests, which means 16,000 pigeons could live there at the same time.
To avoid having a pigeon’s dropping fall on the nest below, the tower was built with an incline so the droppings would fall directly to the bottom.
What is the white line around the tower?
There were always some snakes around which could easily climb up the tower and get inside and eat pigeons. So, people learned they could paint a wide line around the tower so the snakes were no longer able to climb up.
To protect the pigeons from attacking birds, the entrance holes were built so small that only pigeons were able to go through them.
For further protection, wolves’ or hyenas’ heads were hung close to the tower so the attacking birds would be afraid to approach.
Where can we see them?
In central Iran, you can see a lot of them near the farms. The great French traveler, Jean Chardin, has mentioned in his book that there were over 3,000 pigeon towers around Isfahan.
The environs of Isfahan are dotted with bizarre but very picturesque pigeon towers. In contrast to a European dovecote, which often housed pigeons to be used as meat, in Iran the pigeons were never eaten. Here, pigeon towers were used as guano factories to produce fertilizer for the melons that have always been the pride of the region. The guano was also used in the manufacture of gunpowder.