Deir el-Medina: The Village of the Ancient Egyptian Artisans in Luxor

Deir el-Medina is the village of the ancient Egyptian artisans who cut and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. It lies on the West Bank of Luxor in a small desert valley behind the Qurna hills, and it was lived in for more than four centuries, from the reign of Thutmose I (about 1500 BCE) to the end of the New Kingdom. Today you can walk along its stone house walls, enter the painted family tombs the workmen made for themselves and visit a Ptolemaic temple of Hathor. For the tombs of the officials nearby, read our guide to the Tombs of the Nobles.

Deir el-Medina has its own site ticket, sold at the entrance, and most visitors need an hour to an hour and a half. It works best after the Valley of the Kings: having seen the royal tombs, you meet the people who made them. This guide covers the village's history, what to see, tickets, and how to fit it into a West Bank day. If you come by Nile cruise, that West Bank day is Day 2 of the 4-night program from Luxor on ships such as the A Sara.

A village for the royal tomb

When the kings of the 18th Dynasty began to cut their tombs in the Valley of the Kings, they needed a permanent team of skilled workers close to the site and away from the crowds of Thebes. The earliest datable remains of the village go back to Thutmose I. The workers themselves honoured King Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose-Nefertari as the village's patrons, and worshipped them for centuries.

The village reached its final form in the Ramesside period, the 19th and 20th Dynasties, when the tombs of Seti I, Ramesses II and their successors were made. It was walled, with one main street and houses packed on both sides.

How the crew worked

The workforce was called "the crew" and was divided into two gangs, the "right side" and the "left side", like the crew of a ship. Each gang had a foreman, a deputy and a scribe who recorded the work, the absences and the supplies. The working week was eight days followed by two days off; during the week the men slept in huts on the path above the valley and came home for the rest days.

They were state employees, paid in rations: grain for bread and beer, fish, vegetables, oil and clothing. Their wages were well above those of a farm labourer. Many could read and write, which is why the village left more written records than any other community in ancient Egypt.

The first recorded strike

Late in the reign of Ramesses III, around 1155 BCE, the rations arrived weeks late. The workmen walked off the job and sat down at the temples on the West Bank, refusing to work until they were paid. The episode is recorded on the Turin Strike Papyrus, written by the scribe of the tomb, and is often called the first recorded strike in history.

The end of the village

By the end of the 20th Dynasty, tomb robbery, raids by Libyan groups and civil conflict made the valley unsafe. Under Ramesses XI, around 1110 to 1080 BCE, the crew moved inside the walls of Medinet Habu, and the village was abandoned.

The temple and the monastery

In the Ptolemaic period a small stone temple of Hathor was built at the north end of the village, on the site of older shrines. In the Christian era it became a monastery dedicated to Saint Isidore the Martyr, and the monks' presence gave the site its Arabic name.

The real treasure of Deir el-Medina is written. Around 5,000 ostraca were found in a single well near the village, and thousands more came from the houses and rubbish heaps. Because papyrus was expensive, people wrote on flakes of limestone and broken pots. They include:

• Work registers: who was absent and why: "his wife was bleeding", "brewing beer", "stung by a scorpion".
• Accounts and contracts: sales of donkeys, coffins and furniture, loans and debts.
• Court cases: the village had its own local court of senior workmen.
• Letters, love poems, hymns and school exercises, and sketches by the draughtsmen, from cats and baboons to caricatures and practice heads of the king.

Many of these are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Louvre, the British Museum and the Egyptian Museum of Turin. For more on the trades, read what craftsmen did in ancient Egypt.

The village

The lower walls of the houses survive in stone and mud brick. A typical house had a front room with a raised brick platform (perhaps a shrine or a bed), a main room with a column and a household altar, a back room, a kitchen open to the sky with an oven, and stairs to the roof. Walk the main street from end to end, then climb a little way up the western slope: from there the whole plan of the village is visible at once.

The Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1)

The tomb of Sennedjem, a "Servant in the Place of Truth" of the time of Seti I and Ramesses II, was found intact in 1886 with the burials of his family. Its single vaulted burial chamber is one of the best-preserved painted rooms in Egypt: Sennedjem and his wife Iyneferti harvest wheat and flax in the Fields of Iaru, the Egyptian paradise, under a ceiling of gods and texts. It is small, so expect a short queue in the morning.

The Tomb of Inherkhau (TT359)

Inherkhau was a foreman of the crew under Ramesses III and IV. His tomb has a famous scene of the cat of Ra killing the serpent Apophis under a sacred tree, and images of the foreman with his family and grandchildren.

The Tomb of Pashedu (TT3)

Pashedu was a workman of the 19th Dynasty. Down a steep, narrow stair, his burial chamber shows the god Ptah, a falcon on a boat, and Pashedu kneeling and drinking from a pool under a palm tree. It usually needs a separate ticket and is worth it if you love painting.

The pyramid-topped chapels

Above the burial chambers the families built small chapels crowned with mud-brick pyramids. Several have been rebuilt, and they show what a private tomb looked like from outside, something you rarely see elsewhere in Egypt.

The Temple of Hathor

The Ptolemaic temple at the north end is small but well preserved, with fine reliefs and a mud-brick enclosure wall. Look for Christian graffiti from the monastery period. The great well where the ostraca were found is nearby.

Which tombs are open changes from season to season, as the antiquities authority rests some for conservation. Ask at the ticket office which ones your ticket covers that day.

The West Bank sites open from about 6:00 to 17:00, with shorter hours in Ramadan. The official monuments website does not publish a current price for Deir el-Medina and the ministry adjusts prices from time to time, so we do not quote a figure: check at the ticket office. Tickets are sold at the site entrance; bring a bank card and some cash, as the payment methods accepted at the booths have changed in recent seasons.

Deir el-Medina is also included in the multi-day Luxor Pass, which is worth it only if you plan to visit most of the sites on both banks over several days.

Photography

Photos of the village and the temple are allowed. Inside the tombs the guardians may tell you that photography is not allowed or ask for a tip; flash is never allowed on painted walls. Ask before you shoot.

The village is a short drive from the West Bank ferry landing and a few minutes by car from Medinet Habu, the Ramesseum and the Valley of the Queens.

• By car with a driver: the most practical way, combining it with other West Bank sites; cross by the Luxor bridge south of the city.
• Ferry plus taxi: the public ferry from the East Bank takes about 10 minutes; taxis wait on the other side. Agree the fare for the whole loop before you set off.
• Bicycle: possible in winter, but the last stretch climbs into the hills and there is little shade.

• How long: 60 to 90 minutes for the village, two or three tombs and the temple.
• When: first thing in the morning or after 15:00 in winter. From June to August come at opening time; the valley traps heat.
• Order of the day: our usual route is the Valley of the Kings at opening, then Hatshepsut's temple, then Deir el-Medina at the quieter late morning, and Medinet Habu last. Deir el-Medina rarely has the tour-bus crowds of the Valley of the Kings.
• Bring: water, a hat, shoes with grip for the steep tomb stairs, and small notes.
• Accessibility: the tombs are reached by steep, narrow stairs; the village and the temple are easier.

Read our guides to the temple of Medinet Habu, where the workmen held their strike and later moved, and to the best tombs in the Valley of the Kings they built. On the way, stop at the Colossi of Memnon beside the road.

Our private Luxor West Bank tour can include Deir el-Medina with the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's temple, with an Egyptologist guide and a driver. For more ideas, see our Luxor day tours.

What is Deir el-Medina?

The village of the artisans who cut and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, on Luxor's West Bank, lived in from about 1500 to 1080 BCE.

How much is the Deir el-Medina ticket?

It has its own site ticket, sold at the entrance; the tomb of Pashedu usually needs a separate extra ticket. The official monuments website does not publish a current price for the site, so check at the ticket office.

Is Deir el-Medina worth visiting?

Yes, especially after the Valley of the Kings. The tomb of Sennedjem is one of the best-preserved painted rooms in Egypt, the site is quiet and the village shows how ordinary Egyptians lived.

What does Deir el-Medina mean?

Monastery of the town, in Arabic, after the Christian monastery set up in the Ptolemaic temple of Hathor. The ancient name was Set Maat, the Place of Truth.