Place of Work: The Valley of the Kings
Deir-El Medina was the village of workers responsible for cutting and decorating the royal Theban tombs in New Kingdom Egypt. It was located in the hills of the west bank of the Nile River, opposite the city of Thebes. The workers referred to themselves as ‘servants in the Place of Truth’. (Deir el Medina: a worker’s village- Unlocking the Past). It was a special community, the families and stories of workers and craftsmen, who were responsible for the construction of the kings of Ancient Egypt.
A royal necropolis, a flat pain on the western side of the Nile- the area associated by the Egyptians with the sinking sun and the afterlife- hidden within the hills of the area, lost souls, deep within the plains of nature. John Romer states “Under the natural pyramid of this mountain, is the Valley of the Kings. The mountains goddess ‘she who loves silence’ looks down to the gates of the underworld the tombs of imperial Thebes.”
A royal necropolis, a flat pain on the western side of the Nile- the area associated by the Egyptians with the sinking sun and the afterlife- hidden within the hills of the area, lost souls, deep within the plains of nature. John Romer states “Under the natural pyramid of this mountain, is the Valley of the Kings. The mountains goddess ‘she who loves silence’ looks down to the gates of the underworld the tombs of imperial Thebes.”