Deir el-Medina

Deir el-Medina was the settlement of the craftsmen who cut and decorated the royal tombs, occupied for around four hundred years and then abandoned, and it is one of the most informative sites in Egypt because those craftsmen were literate. Tens of thousands of ostraca from the village record work rosters, wages in grain, complaints, legal disputes, love poems, laundry lists and what is generally reckoned the earliest recorded labour strike, when deliveries failed under Ramesses III. The village plan survives as low walls along a single street. Above it are the workmen's own tombs, small chambers with vaulted painted ceilings that they decorated for themselves, of which those of Sennedjem and Inherkhau are the finest and among the most vividly coloured on the west bank.

What you actually see

• The village street plan - houses of the tomb workers in low walls.
• Sennedjem's tomb - a small vaulted chamber painted in intense colour.
• Inherkhau's tomb - another painted workman's burial above the village.
• A Ptolemaic temple - the later shrine that gave the site its Arabic name.

When to go

October to April. Two hours. Mornings are cooler for the climb to the tombs. The site is quieter than the main temples but the small tombs fill quickly when a group arrives.

Honest expectations

The decorated tombs are tiny and take only a few people at a time, so waits happen. Some require separate tickets. The village itself is low walls and needs interpretation to mean much. The climb up to the tombs is steep in full sun.

Nearby

The Valley of the Queens is south; the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu are close.