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| Location: | Latitude 25º 44' N, longitude 32º 36' E. |
Deir el-Medina is one of Egypt's archaeological gems. Located in a little
valley on the west bank across from Luxor are the well-preserved foundations of
a village that was used for about 500 years during the New Kingdom. Its
inhabitants included the workmen and artisans who constructed the New Kingdom
royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings.
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Lying south of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Deir el-Medineh ("the
Monastery of the Town" in Arabic) is named after a small Ptolemaic
temple that was once occupied by early Christian monks. The
"town" to which it refers is the ruined Workman's Village
nearby. Here the craftsmen who carved and decorated the tombs in the
Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens lived during the New
Kingdom. Some of the houses belonged to men responsible for carving and
decorating the tombs of Rameses
II (KV 7) and his sons
(KV 5).
The structures at Deir el-Medineh date from the New Kingdom to the
Coptic Period, though most of what remains today dates to the Ramesside
period. The construction of the village was begun during the reign of
Tuthmosis I, and the village flourished throughout the 18th, 19th and
20th Dynasties. The village, which housed an estimated 80 - 120 workers
and their families, is surrounded by an enclosure wall which is pierced
by doorways on the north and west sides.
The village is divided by a main north-south road and several transverse roads. The 70 houses, made of mudbrick with stone foundations, share a similar plan and consist of three rooms with underground storage space and a stairway leading up to a roof terrace. Some of the houses had simple paintings on the walls and/or a rectangular silo behind the kitchen at the back of the house. The doorways of the houses were painted red and inscribed with the names of the inhabitants. Numerous stelae, thousands of ostraca, and 200 hieratic papyri, which shed some light on the day-to-day life of Ancient Egyptians, have been found at Deir el-Medineh.
The village was first excavated early this century by Ernesto Schiaparelli, but considerable valuable work was carried out later by Bernard Bruyere and Jaroslav Cerny.
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Valuable records of life in the ancient village were found in the remains of the houses and nearby in an enormous pit located on the other side of the temple - take great care if approaching this pit. The records were in the form of ostraca (fragments of limestone and potsherds used for writing) and papyri.
Most tourists have their first sight of Deir el-Medina from the southside as
they enter the little valley in their tourist buses or taxis.
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One of the most popular tombs on the hillside is that of Sennedjem - this
means that there can sometimes be a wait for entry, although there is some
shelter and books and postcards are for sale adjacent to the entrance. Sennedjem
lived in the 19th Dynasty during the reigns of Seti I and Ramesses II.
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Another tomb often included in a visit to Deir el-Medina is that of Inherkhau who served as a Foreman on the royal tomb construction teams during the 20th Dynasty.
A lovely tomb that has been opened to the public in recent times is that of
Pashedu. It is located further along the western hillside than the previously
mentioned tombs.
On the hillside to the north of the village at Deir el-Medineh are
chapels dedicated to the local cults of the community; the largest
chapel was a temple to Hathor. The earliest temple was a small chapel
built by Tuthmosis I. After the destruction of this chapel, Rameses II
built a temple on the same site, which was abandoned at the end of the
20th Dynasty. During the Ptolemaic period, the temple of Rameses II was
destroyed and a new sandstone temple was built by Ptolemy IV Philopator.
The temple is dedicated to Hathor of the West, Ma'at, Imhotep and
Amenhetep, son of Hapu.
On the slopes west of the village walls lie the artisans' tombs,
which are modest in size but beautifully decorated. The tombs consist of
a court which leads to a chapel and burial chamber, and a pyramidal
super-structure. The tombs were used for multiple family burials and
were sealed after each interment. The painted decoration, which is in
some cases very well preserved, provide us with information on the daily
activities of the villagers.
The village at Deir el-Medineh was occupied for nearly 500 years.
During the 20th Dynasty, the village at Deir el-Medineh was threatened
by the Libyan invasions. The village was abandoned and some of the
inhabitants took refuge in Medinet Habu. The cemetery at Deir el-Medineh
continued to be used into the Third Intermediate Period. During the Græco-Roman
period many Pharaohs completed building projects at the Ptolemaic
Temple--Julius Caesar commissioned an Iseion--and the underground
storage areas of the Ramesside houses were used for burials. During the
Coptic Period, a monastery was built within the walls of the village,
the Temple of Hathor was converted into a Church, and Christian hermits
turned the open tombs into residences. The site was deserted at the time
of the Arab Conquest in the 7th century AD. Champollion explored Deir el-Medineh in the early 19th century to
make copies of the painted tomb decorations, and early visits by Henry
Salt, Bernardino Drovetti and others led to the removal of artifacts
to the Museo Egizio in Turin, the British Museum, the Louvre and the Ägyptische
Museum in Berlin. Gaston
Maspero restored the Ptolemaic Temple at Deir el-Medineh in the late
19th century, and by the beginning of the 20th century the site had been
plundered by collectors. Deir el-Medineh was cleared by Ernesto
Schiaperelli for the Italian Mission in 1905-1909 and by Bernard Bruyère
for the French Institute in Cairo in 1922-1940 and 1945-1951.