Deir el Medina

About Deir el Medina

Ancient Egyptian village in the Valley of the Kings

Tucked into a fold of the Theban hills is the village where the craftsmen who cut and painted the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings lived with their families, from the 18th to the 20th Dynasty (about 1550 to 1080 BC). Its ancient name was Set Maat, the Place of Truth, and its people were the Servants in the Place of Truth. The Arabic name, Deir el-Medina, the monastery of the town, comes from a Coptic monastery later set up inside the small temple of Hathor at the site. You walk down the village street between the stone footings of some seventy houses, then climb to the workers' own tombs on the slope above. They are small, but because the owners decorated them themselves, the colours are among the freshest in Luxor: harvest scenes, family portraits and bright yellow ceilings. The Ptolemaic Hathor temple at the north end is compact and well preserved. The villagers left thousands of inscribed potsherds (ostraca) with letters, accounts, strike records and complaints, which makes this the best-documented ordinary community of ancient Egypt and gives the visit an unusually human feel.

Where:

Luxor, Egypt

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