No. 7

Deir el-Medina

On land Egypt & Africa

Travel there with Lyra

Where: Egypt
Built by: Royal tomb workers
Era: 1550-1070 BCE
Known for: The village of the tomb builders, with their letters, strikes and shopping lists.
How it ended: Emptied when royal tomb building stopped.

Arbeitersiedlung von Deir el-Medina („Kloster der Stadt“), altägyptisch Set Maat („Platz der Wahrheit“), in Theben-West bei Luxor, Ägypten — Olaf Tausch, CC BY 3.0

Tomb at the entrance of Deir el-Medina, Theban Necropolis, Egypt — Rémih, CC BY-SA 3.0

Fragment of relief of Khawy, Servant in the Place of Truth. 19th Dynasty. From Tomb 214 at Deir el-Medina, Egypt.The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London. With thanks to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology — Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0

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Background

Deir el-Medina (Egyptian Arabic: دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of Egypt (ca. 1550–1080 BC). The settlement's ancient name was Set maat ("Place of Truth"), and the workmen who lived there were called "Servants in the Place of Truth". During the Christian era, the temple of Hathor was converted into a Monastery of Saint Isidorus the Martyr (Coptic: ⲡⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ ⲙ̄ⲫⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲡⲁ ⲓⲥⲓⲇⲱⲣⲟⲥ ⲡⲙⲁⲣⲧⲉⲣⲟⲥ) from which the Egyptian Arabic name Deir el-Medina ("Monastery of the City") is derived.

At the time when the world's press was concentrating on Howard Carter's discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, a team led by Bernard Bruyère began to excavate the site. This work has resulted in one of the most thoroughly documented accounts of community life in the ancient world that spans almost four hundred years. There is no comparable site in which the organisation, social interactions, working and living conditions of a community can be studied in such detail.

The site is located on the west bank of the Nile, across the river from modern-day Luxor. The village is laid out in a small natural amphitheatre, within easy walking distance of the Valley of the Kings to the north, funerary temples to the east and south-east, with the Valley of the Queens to the west. The village may have been built apart from the wider population in order to preserve secrecy in view of sensitive nature of the work carried out in the tombs. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.