Companion of Water and Fire in Religious Monuments of Sassanid Era

Studies show that the Sasanian fire temples tend to be near water resources, such as rivers, springs, and streams. However, the necessity of its existence in fire temple’s surrounding could not be confirmed certainly but by studying the locations of fire temples we realize that most of them are built near or at a short distance from water sources, or in some cases, there is a building near fire temples to praise water. Despite the lack of information on describing the architecture of the fire temples in Avesta, the most important source of Zoroastrianism, we juxtaposed its description of Anahita, places, and homes with the architecture of religious places from the Sassanian period that is known. The current study aims to answer the question: did the building of fire temples next to the water sources have religious reasons or not? This study intends to investigate why the fire temples were built near water sources through documentary research methods and by citing archaeological evidence. It may be depicted that in the majority of the cases, no monument used to be built for praising water, and the ritual was held near the water sources. From this view, the proximity of constructing fire temples to the water resources was an illustration of religious justifications for selecting the location of fire temples and their proximity to the water sources.