Deir el-Medina or Valley of the Workers was the place where the community of the workmen who constructed the royal tombs in Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens used to live with their families.
The workers of Deir el-Medina and their families were the only people allowed to live in the west bank of Luxor, as everyone else used to live in the east. The reason of isolating the workers at the west was to secure the location of the royal tombs, so they can’t communicated with people and tell them the location of Valley of the Kings/Queens.
Valley of the workers was the place where the workers lived, as ruins of their homes are still in place till now a days and the place of their tombs as well, as their tombs are carved in the mountain right in front of where they built their homes.
Although the tombs in valley of the workers are not as big as the ones in kings valley, but they are very richly decorated.
Deir el-Medina tombs have no corridors or lots of store rooms like the kings, its just one chamber used as a burial chamber and store room at once, decorated with different daily life scenes, showing how those workers lived their life, spent their spare time enjoying the river Nile, playing with their kids or setting with their wives.
Most of the tombs have vaulted ceiling not a straight one like the tombs of the kings or the queens.
The whole area of Deir el-Medina was secured by a part of the army back in ancient Egypt. To save them from any attacks and to ensure that non of the workers would go back to valley of the kings and plunder any of the tombs there.
A tour to Deir el-Medina will make you able to see the tombs of the workers, their homes, know more about their daily life and how they lived at this little village and see the magnificent tomb Pashedu
