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Village of Artisans Deir el Medina

The Valleys - The Places

Deir el Medina : Pa Demi

What: A planned Community home for the Worker’s and Artisan’s which they called home whilst they worked on the Tombs in the Valley of the Kings, Queens and Nobles

 

Where: Located roughly 1-kilometre South of the Valley of the Kings and closer to the Valley of the Queens, on the West Bank of the Nile in the Theban Necropolis opposite the City of Waset, present day Luxor

 

When: Founded by Pharaoh Amenhotep I approx. 1530BC and continued in use until around 1,069BC; a period of approx. 450 years

It appears that Pharaoh Amenhotep I inherited at the Throne at a young age and so his mother may have co-ruled as Regent with him until he reached a certain age, so she is noted along with her son as the driving force behind the creation of the Village

During the 19th and 20th Dynasties the number of Workers living in Deir el Medina doubled

The decline began at the end of the reign of Pharaoh Ramses XI when looting in the Valleys was immensely high. The Villagers abandoned the Village and moved inside the Enclosure Walls of the Mortuary Temple of Medinet Habu. They would return to the Village to worship at the Temples and visit their Family Tombs

Known as: Pa Demi or The Village by the people who called it home and as Set Ma’at in Official Records

 

Why: Sequestered by the Pharaohs to excavate, carve and decorate their own and their family’s tombs in the Valleys hidden in the Theban Hills

The Village was to keep the Village’s population and their families isolated from the general populace primarily for security reasons

 

Who: Populated by Artisans, their families and support workers who were needed to complete the Tombs of the Pharaohs, Queens, Royals and some Elite Nobles, roughly a community of 400 people called Deir el Medina their home by the end of the Reign of Pharaoh Ramses II

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