Deir el-Medina
Be A Guest In The Homes Of The Ancient Egyptian Artisans Who Built The Dazzling Royal Tombs Then, What Will You Witness In Deir el-Medina?
On the west bank of the Nile, specifically in the southern area of Theban Necropolis Luxor, the real builders of the majestic royal tombs in the New Kingdom ) (1541-1520 BE) settled down, where you can walk through the homes of these artisans and craftsmen of Thebes who creatively excavated, constructed, and decorated the valley of the Kings and the valley of the queens and their hands carry out bright unique inscriptions, and with subtly they were sculpting statues, furniture, and utensils to prepare the tomb of each Pharaoh according to his desire before death. Deir el-Medina, which is the Workmen’s Village, still maintains its luster with its pharaonic houses that are now open to the public.
Daily Life of Ancient Egyptians
So, while you wander through the dazzling treasure of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and their vibrant, colorful decorations that are still alive now and preserved in their condition as if they had just been engraved, Deir el-Medina get you the chance to witness the daily life of the ancient Egyptian men with their families in their REAL houses, who built and decorated these magnificent royal tombs. You will be surrounded by the integrated actual social life of these ancient Egyptian workers by crossing through 70 houses.
Within your tour inside these houses in Deir el-Medina, see their used tools of utensils and others, as well as their
Deir el-Medina by Fæ
furniture, you will meet a dry well with letters written by the inhabitants of this village in which they had shown how they lived in those houses, how they cooked their food and raised their children, their habits, what were the daily problems and their issues and how they overcame them, in addition to their love stories.
You will witness their life, from the organization of work to the passing through of disputes, problems, and crimes to funeral rites in cemeteries. That is how Deir el-Medina traces tell a different history for the ancient Egyptians than that left by the kings of the Pharaohs in their tombs.
Set-Ma’at (“The Place of Truth)
How will you feel while you walk through these streets of a real-entire Pharaonic village, Deir el-Medina, with its houses and cemeteries, and witness the details of life in it, to live a time of your life as if you were a real Pharaoh! What makes the matter greater is that you will share this time with the builders of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Deir el-Medina was the village where the gods inspired the ancient Egyptians to create the kings and their families’ tombs, and where they creatively designed these cemeteries and their treasure to be a “palace” that Pharaoh could return to on occasions after his death and where he would live in his afterlife, that is why this village was called by the ancient Egyptian Set-Ma’at, which means the place of the truth. Its known name now, Deir el-Medina, is the recent name for the village.
How Will Be Your Attractive Tour inside The Houses of Deir el-Medina?
You will go along with that historical wall built by those ancient Egyptian builders. It surrounds the village, about 131 meters from north to south, 50 meters from east to west, divided into two equal parts and separated by a street that extends from north to south to meet these historically adjacent houses. You will realize that the pharaohs who inhabited this area did not leave Spaces between each house and another. The two adjacent houses often share one wall, and some homes are built outside the village fence on the northern side, amounting to about 50 houses.
The houses have the same design most similar to the rest of the pharaonic houses. They overlook alleys, and these houses have been covered to protect people from the sun’s rays. Their walls were painted white, while their doors were painted red. The name of the house’s owner was written over the door, and the houses were built with blank stone to a height of 150 cm above ground level, then supplemented with mud bricks. The roofs are made of reinforced mud brick with wooden supports.
More Description
From the street, you will enter the first room, where the altar is located inside what looks like flint and has an umbrella above it, and its walls are decorated with scenes of Gods. It contains the offerings tables, saddles, and utensils. Then we move to the second room, the house’s largest and most beautiful room. Its ceiling is higher than the rest of the house’s ceilings. The lighting is provided to the room by a window with stone openings. The roof is usually raised over a column.
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
The main furniture in the room is the sofa to receive guests, and a staircase goes down from the room leads to an underground warehouse to store all the family’s precious possessions, and the pantries are located at the back of the house.
Tomb Interior
Then you will go to the women’s room and then to the kitchen at the back of the house, and from it, you will reach the basement of the pots and jars, and from the kitchen, you can also reach the roof of the house, which was used as a place where the people relaxed and made conversations. The kitchen includes baking and cooking tools, millstones, water jars, and ovens. It is covered on one side by a window of tree branches to protect it from the sun’s rays.
After your fabulous tour inside those real pharaonic houses built by the ancient Egyptians, your hands and furniture carry the pharaonic prints. At the same time, they practiced their daily life, which will captivate your soul to wander in a remarkable historical period where you will be at the heart of Pharaonic life. You will find other ancient Egyptian buildings that express other parts of their daily life.
How will you meet At Deir el-Medina Streets?
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
Attend the ancient Egyptian disputes and cross through the ancient Egyptian court, with all its members from the people of the village, to settle the people’s conflicts, and you will live with them in their cases.
It had the right to impose the penalty and punishment on the accused and to pardon the oppressed, but the death penalty required taking the opinion of the minister, who also had the right to pardon. All these details you will see in the ruins of this court.
On your way in the Deir el-Medina village, that population approached one thousand and two hundred people; you will find a dry well with 5,000 pieces of pottery with various letters, inscriptions, and drawings for families, and texts describing their daily lives.
A Temple with a Unique Layout
The same as you will live the daily life of the pharaohs in their houses and go around their streets, Deir el-Medina temple is where you witness the moments of the worship of the ancient Egyptians.
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
It is a Ptolemaic temple that was built and decorated in the 3rd century BC by Ptolemy IV and dedicated to the goddess Hathor, but this temple differs completely and partially from the rest of the Ptolemaic temples; it is surrounded by a high wall built with mud bricks, then the temple gate that leads us to a courtyard that still contains some traces of the Christian monastery, as the Copts of Egypt used it in ancient times as a church, then you will go to a colonnade hall and then another hall that in turn leads to the Holy of the Holiest.
On your way to Deir el-Medina, you will also find remnants of other smaller temples, including one built by Seti I and another from the reign of Amenhotep I. A small temple of the god Amun is also located east of the Temple of Hathor, and it is believed that it was built during the reign of Ramses II.
How the Hands that Built the Dazzling tombs of kings excelled in Building Their Tombs inside Deir el-Medina
Tomb of Sennedjem
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
Sennedjem was a servant in the right place, and his tomb dates back to the nineteenth family. This tomb was discovered in 1886 and contained a group of magnificent funeral furniture. Descending stairs in the outer courtyard of the cemetery will reach you to the burial chamber, a small room with a vaulted ceiling whose walls and ceiling are covered with beautiful scenes of bright colors.
A double view of the god Anubis in the image of a black jackal, and below this view, there is Sennedjem, and behind
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
him his wife, while he worshiped a group of Deities of the other world, they had been depicted in two rows, all sitting on the symbol of Maat.
Going Deeper Inside the Tomb
Then we move to the wall facing the inside and see a scene representing the god Anubis as it takes care of the mummy of the deceased lying on a bed that took the shape of a lion in addition to some texts from the Book of the Dead. Another scene represents the deceased sitting on the ground in front of the god of the dead, Osiris, standing in his white robe inside his cabin and in the center of the sacrificial table. A third scene represents the god Anubis leading Sennedjem.
On the other narrow wall, two monkeys worshiped the sun god inside his sacred boat, and below that, there are agricultural scenes from daily life and part of the yarrow fields that the deceased would like to go to in the afterlife.
We now move to the part to the right of the interior of the entrance wall, and we see the deceased and his wife worshiping ten different gods. Below this view is a traditional picture of relatives and followers holding the stems of papyrus.
The Tomb Ceiling
On the ceiling of the vaulted burial chamber, we see scenes divided into two rows; the outer row towards the entrance includes the following scenes in order: the god Ra Hor, followed by the god Atum sitting on a small calf and behind two trees, then Sennedjem while he worships the gods.
The scenes in the inner row represent the deceased and his wife worshiping the sacred tree while they worship the gods of the sky.
Peshedu Tomb
Deir el-Medina by Olaf Tausch
Above the entrance wall of Peshedu’s tomb to the burial room, we can see a scene representing the god Ptah Sukkar in the image of a winged falcon inside a boat and in front of it, the son of Peshedu worshipers. Behind the boat, another son prays to a group of deities depicted on the other wall. Below this view is the image of the deceased on the right of the interior, kneeling under a fruitful palm tree to drink water from the lake.
Interior of the Tomb
On the left of the interior, on the same now as the southern wall as the entrance, there are three rows of relatives of the deceased, then you will find a wall to the right of the interior. A scene represents the deceased and his daughter while standing worshiping the gods Ra, Hur Akhti, Atum, Khubri, and Ptah. Then we see on the two walls a view of the journey Holy to Abydos, where we see the deceased and his wife, with a child, and in front of them an offering table in a boat.
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
On the other narrow wall facing the inside, a scene represents the god Osiris sitting on his throne in front of a mountain. Behind Osiris, at the end of the burial room, we see the remains of the coffin, which includes texts from the Book of the Dead and a scene representing Anubis as he took care of the mummy of the deceased lying on a bed.
On the southern half of the ceiling, we see images of the gods and goddesses Osiris, Nut, Shu, Nephthys, Geb, Anubis, and Ra. On the northern half, we see the other group of gods and goddesses: Osiris, Jhoti, Hathor, Ra, Hor, and Anubis.
About Deir el-Medina History
Deir el-Medina by isawnyu
Amenhotep I was the first planner for the site of Deir el-Medina. By the time of the New Kingdom (c.1570-c.1069 BC), tomb-robbing had spread more despite the false doors and labyrinths, which had been a part of tomb building since the Old Kingdom, but that was not enough trick in front of thieves to stop them from reaching the burial chamber and stole the vast treasures left there.
Kings Valley and Deir El Madina
So, the Valley of the Kings was selected as the new secret necropolis for royalty. That was why Amenhotep I thought in establishing Set-Ma’at, Deir el-Medina, to be the village of the workers and engineers designing the afterlife for the pharaohs. They were called “Servants in place of Truth.” The planning aim for Deir el-Medina was easy access to the worker’s home to the royal tombs. Deir el-Medina is a half-hour’s walk from the Valley of the Kings.
Deir el-Medina still had its role as a comfort house for the Servants in place of Truth till Thutmose I. Still, with the collapse of the New Kingdom in 1069 BC, the city began to desert until it was empty, as the valley of the kings was abandoned as royal tombs. Hence, the citizens of Deir el-Medina left for Thebes, specifically at the temple of Medinet Habu in 1069 BC.
But after a time, Deir el-Medina was resettled again by monks in the early Christian era in the 4th century CE.
The monks took over the Temple of Hathor for use as a cloister. The temple was called Deir el-Medina (“Monastery of the Town”), and this name finally applied to the entire site.
That is how Deir el-Medina will be a remarkable experience. You will experience living an important period in the ancient Egyptian civilization, seeing building the history with your own eyes.
