Deir El-Medina

The ancient village of Madinah sits on the west bank of the Nile, across the river from Luxor.  It served as the residence of the artisans who built the temples and tombs ordered by the Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens and the Theban necropolis, during the New Kingdom (18th to 20th dynasties).  The area covered  5600 m² and at its peak Deir el-Madinah was the site of some 70 homes with another 40 outside the perimeter wall. The layout of the village was centered around a central track, with alleys leading from it. Most of the houses were one-storey constructions of mud brick, although some stone was used towards the end of the village's occupaton.  The village was abandoned following the death of Ramses XI, at the end of the 20th dynasty. 

The settlement's ancient name, Set Maat her imenty Waset, means "place of truth" . The Arabic name Deir el-Madinah translates as "the convent of the town": this owes to the fact that at the time of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, the village's Ptolemaic temple had been converted into a Christian church. 

One legend holds that the inhabitants of the village worshiped Amenhotep I as the founder and protector of the artisans' guild.  The patron of the village was the cobra-goddess Meretseger, who was said to dwell atop the pyramid-shaped mountain al-Qurn that stands between Deir al-Madinah and the Valley of the Kings. The workers also worshiped other gods such as Maat, goddess of justice and balance, Thoth, the protector of scribes and painters, and Chnum, the ram-headed god of potters and sculptors.

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