Deir el-Medina

Deir el-Medina is the craftsmen's village dating to the 2nd millennium BCE where the artisans and workers building the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (see another post) lived. The site is located centrally among the Valley of the Kings, the valley of the Queens and an area of funerary temples and tombs, mostly of nobles, all of which are places where these artists worked. The name means Monastery of the City, named for the monastery constructed here on an older temple to Hathor (see another post).
The 1st 2 pictures look at the village which has been excavated and well studied, providing one of the best understandings of ancient village life anywhere.
Adjacent to the village and built into the hillside are a number of tombs of the village elites, mostly supervising artisans. The 4 remaining pictures are taken in 3 of those tombs. I'm not going to try to describe the pictures, except to say that these tombs house some of the most incredibly preserved art, showing the original colors.Read more