The Village of the Workers
(Deir el-Medina)

Scene: Tour bus travelling on the Valley of the Kings tourist road
Guide (casually): There, on the left, is the workers' village.
What I didn't (couldn't) say: Hey! Stop! I want to look at that!
What I did do: Grabbed the camera for a quick shot out the bus window
The workers' village is not "something to look at." After all, it is composed of mostly mud brick buildings that melt away further with each occasional rain; it simply can't compare in "attraction" with the monumental stone temples and tombs. Nevertheless, the workers' village is among the more interesting of the interesting sites bypassed by a 10-day tour because it represents one of the very few remaining archeological evidences of daily life in ancient Egypt.
The existence of this village, which functioned continuously during the entire New Kingdom period (500 years), explains not only who did the actual work of digging, carving, and painting the royal tombs but also the extraordinary efforts the pharoahs exerted to preserve the secrecy (and so the security) of their tombs.

Deir el-Medina was a closed city. The village was the ancient Egyptian equivalent of Los Alamos, New Mexico, at the height of the cold war. Food and water were imported. Little contact was allowed with the outside world but the workers and their families probably were satisfied: they were paid well in liberal allotments of grain and beer and there was considerable social status attached to serving the king. In fact, the often dangerous work in the tombs merited the title "Servant in the Place of Truth."

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