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Photo: Ben Pirard, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Originally called Set Maat (the Place of Truth), the village was built to house the Royal tombs' workforce of literate priest-craftsmen (the "Servants in the Place of Truth"), on the reign of Amenhotep I, the community's patron, worshipped here along his mother Ahmose-Nefertari. Its abundant domestic and written remains (thousands of ostraca) make it the very best-studied Ancient Egypt community to date.
Deir el-Medina, or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of Egypt. The settlement's ancient name was Set maat, and the workmen who lived there were called "Servants in the Place of Truth". During the Christian era, the temple of Hathor was converted into a Monastery of Saint Isidorus the Martyr from which the Egyptian Arabic name Deir el-Medina is derived.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
The burial place of Servant in the Place of Truth Sennedjem and his family. It was found undisturbed in 1886.
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The Great Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II's tomb was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli (the director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin) in 1904. It is often called the Sistine Chapel of Ancient Egypt. Often closed for restoration through long periods, as of January 2026 the tomb is closed.
The tomb of a famous Scribe in the Place of Truth. It consists of a court and a chapel. The chapel is decorated with scenes showing Amenhotep I, Ahmose Nefertari, Horemheb and Tuthmosis IV. Another scene shows King Ramesses II followed by the vizier Paser offering before the Theban Triad: Amun, Mut and Khonsu
Found immediately adjacent to the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Merneptah (the 13th son and eventual successor to the long-lived Ramesses II) was re-opened in 2002 as a new attraction after the careful and effective reconstruction of the temple foundations and lower courses by a Swiss archaeological team. (The temple was first excavated by the famous English Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1904 and was the scene of his discovery of the so-called Israel Stela, featuring the earliest recorded mention of Israel in ancient sources, now to be seen in Cairo's Egyptian Museum). Although not featuring the inscribed wall reliefs and towering columns associated with many Egyptian temples, the Merneptah temple nonetheless now provides an unsurpassed impression of the layout of a 19th dynasty funerary temple with many interesting architectural details. A small partly-subterranean museum is also to be found on site, in which many of the magnificent painted reliefs and sculpture (many usurped by Merneptah from the nearby Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III) are displayed. Sadly neglected by many visitors to the West Bank, the site and museum are nonetheless well worth a visit.