On the slopes of the Shamsan range above western Crater stand the remains of a Zoroastrian dakhma — a "tower of silence" where Parsi communities exposed their dead to be cleaned by vultures. The structure is a low circular wall of dressed stone, mostly intact, with the central well still visible. It dates from the British colonial period, when a community of Parsi merchants from Bombay settled in Aden to run the port's commercial agencies.
The Parsi community is gone — the last family left in the late 20th century — and the site is unmarked and unmaintained. The walk up is steep and the path is poor. The setting, on a wind-scoured ridge with the port and the volcanic crater below, gives the strongest sense of just how cosmopolitan British Aden once was.