Deir Al Madinah
Deir Al Medinah (Workers’ Village) is a neighborhood in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
Most of what remains of Ancient Egypt that we can see now is solely devoted to the pharaonic royal family. Because of their massive size and the fact that they are carved out of stone, the monumental building projects that the kings of Egypt commissioned have withstood the test of time far better than artifacts from everyday Egyptian life. However, the triumphal imagery of the pharaohs in the temples and royal tombs around Luxor can become repetitive.
It almost creates the sense that the Egyptian kings and queens resided in seclusion along the Nile River‘s banks. Visits to the Workers’ Village (also known as the Tombs of the Nobles) are a pleasant change of pace when you are feeling overwhelmed by everything that you have seen at the temples and royal tombs. You will get some insight into the life of more ‘regular’ ancient Egyptians while you are there.
For one thing, Deir Al-Madinah is unusual in that it is the only example of a well-preserved Egyptian hamlet within a reasonable distance of Luxor. There were no kings or queens in residence here; rather, it was the residence of the artisans who serviced them. Around 70 people resided on this site while state-employed artists worked to beautify the royal graves, which attracted the attention of the public.
Because of their status as skilled artisans, these families were probably still relatively wealthy in comparison to the average person, but the small homes and humble private tombs that have been discovered here provide as good an indication of what life was like for ancient Egyptians as anything that has been discovered anywhere else.
Each of the little graves is exquisitely painted, as one would expect from tombs that the artists created for themselves and their families, and the iconography contained inside them represents modest moments from their lives and those of their families. It stands in stark contrast to the typical images of the afterlife that can be seen in the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens in Egypt.
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