Workmen's huts
The workmen from Deir el-Medina were working throughout the whole year, in summer as
well as in winter. The working week consisted of 9 working days ; the 10th, 20th and
30th day of each month were their days of rest. (Egyptian month had three periods of
10 days each). Apart from these rest days, the workforce often had time off to
celebrate festivals of the principal gods. The festival usually stretched over several
consecutive days.
The page was last modified on November 5th 2007
1. Černý, Jaroslav: Egypt from the death of Ramesses III to the end of the 21st dynasty.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1965.
2. Romer, John: Ancient lives : the story of the Pharaoh's tombmakers
London : Phoenix, 1984.
3. Clayton, Peter A.: Chronicles of the Pharaohs : the reign-by-reign record of the rulers and dynasties of
ancient Egypt
London : Thames & Hudson, 1994.
4. Davies, Benedict G.: Who's who at Deir el-Medina : a prosopographic study of the royal workmen's
community
Leiden : Nederlands Instituut voor Her Nabije Oosten, 1999.
5. Weeks, Kent R.: The treasures of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings
Cercelli : White Star Publishers, 2005.
6.Roehrig, Catharine H.: Explorers and artists in the Valley of the Kings
Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 2001.
The workmen were employed in the Valley of the Kings preparing the pharaoh's tomb or in
the Valley of the Queens, preparing the tombs of the king's wives or they could be
working in other parts of the Theban necropolis preparing the tombs of those high officials
to whom the pharaoh lent his workforce as a mark of his favour. In between their working
days, the men spent their nights in the Valley of the Kings or in its close proximity in
simple huts.
A village of stone huts was built on the path between the settlement of Deir
el-Medina and the Valley of the Kings. It was built about half way between
the two at the very top of the footpath. Towards the west the view of the
Valley of the Kings and the surrounding desert is magnificent...
...and the view towards east - the view of the Nile Valley - is breathtaking.
The path between the settlemetn of Deir el-Medina and the Valley of
the Kings is the same ancient path the artisans used on their way to
work 3,500 years ago.
The magnificent view of
Deir el-Medina and the
emerald green fields in the
Nile Valley as seen from
the footpath connecting the
village with the stone huts.
The play of shadows
on the Theban cliffs in
the late afternoon.
None of the paths
are difficult but
sometimes the edge
of the cliff does
come close.
Remains of these huts have
been excavated and investigated
at the bottom of the Valley of
the Kings.
The huts had two rooms,
an inner, sleeping chamber
and an antechamber with
stone seats along its wall.
The seats were made of blocks of
limestone. They were U-shaped as
if imitating the wooden seats of
the furniture in the village houses.
Kenherkhepshef, who held the office of scribe beginning at least in year 40 of Ramesses
II and continuing down to year 1 of Siptah (around years 1239-1193 BC), inhabited the
largest, most centrally placed hut in the settlement. Unlike the other huts, it had three
rooms. Each room was paved with slabs of limestone.
The huts at the top of the cliffs are not the only stone huts the royal
workmen's community built for themselves. Remains of stone workshops and
small huts where necropolis guards stood watch in the late New Kingdom are
scattered throughout the Theban necropolis.
This stela shows Wennekhu and
Penpakhenty worshipping the sun
god. The sun god is represented
as a falcon-headed mummiform
figure, seated in the solar barque
Early 19th dynasty, about 1250
BC.
Shabti of Sennedjem.
New Kingdom, 19th dynasty, reign
of Seti I, 1294-1279 BC.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge E.G.
1887.
There were two main groups of
huts at the top of the cliffs - the
east and the west huts - divided
by the path into four clusters. The
huts shared common roofs.
Temples
Settlement
Chapels
Tombs
Rock shrine
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"It is impossible to imagine a contrast
more striking than that presented by
the two scenes that we had before our
eyes: on one side solitude, aridity,
desolation and death; on the other
temples, palaces and beautiful river,
vegetation, cultivated fields, herds,
people, and all the movement of living
nature."
The remarkable view as described by
M. Costaz, a member of the
Commission des arts et des sciences,
who arrived in Egypt with Napoleon's
army in July of 1798.
Ostrakon with a
drawing of
Meretseger, the local
goddess worshipped by
the workmen of Deir
el-Medina.
Petrie Museum
UC33812
Without any doubt, the ancient
artisans used to sit at the top of the
cliffs near their huts and admire the
views. On clear days it is possible to
see as far as 40 kilometers to the Red
Sea Hills in the east.
It could have been used
as Kenherkhepshef's
office, where he handled
the records of the work
at the royal tomb and
wrote his letters to the
officers of the
administration.
In the most southern cluster of
the huts we found this sign or
inscription, the detail of which is
shown below.
The area around the huts and, as a matter of
fact, the ground at the top of the cliffs in the
Theban hills is scattered with
thirty-million-year-old fossilised  clamshells.
Some small, some as big as a fist. They are
reminders of the times when the area lay
beneath the sea.
The workmen set up small workshops in the hut settlement where they
made shabtis and stone stelae with scenes showing the villagers
praying before their gods.
The area opposite the Ptah's
shrine where traces of small
stone huts of Ramesside date
have been found.