In what is now called Deir el-Medina there are the remains of a village inhabited by the workers who excavated and decorated the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. For five centuries stonemasons, painters and sculptors lived here. They reached the tombs by means by a path over the steep hills which separated the village from the valley. The workmen would spend a certain number of days at the work site and then return home for a rest. To make their journeys easier there was a rest house located on top of a hill.

The village was enclosed by a wall and workers and their families were not expected to intermingle with people from other villages. These workers knew the secrets of the tombs and were expected to keep them. The inhabitants were privileged for their work and had a higher standard of life than other villages. They were skilled and many, including women, were literate.

The workmen’s homes were small one storey houses built one against the other. The basic layout would be four rooms. The walls were built of stone, not mudbrick, as the village was located away from the Nile and a good source of mud.

The streets were only wide enough for two donkeys to pass and yet the families of between 40 and 60 craftsmen lived here. We can imagine the cramped conditions of life in the village. Yet it must have been a vibrant community. Fathers would be eager to pass on their skills to their sons and would spend time training them. They also found time to work on their own tombs and make items to sell. As the men were away so much of the time, women would have management roles both in the home and in the village.

Work crews were designated by what side of the tomb it worked on: The Left Side Work Crew and The Right Side Work Gang. Workers cut their way into the soft limestone sometimes for hundreds of feet. Occasionally they had to change direction to avoid cutting into a previous tomb. The walls were then smoothed and plastered. A grid was marked and sketches corrected. It was then time to fill in the details and add color.

The workmen were paid in grain and other foodstuffs such as fish, vegetables, wood for fuel and pottery. Bonuses on special occasions might include dates, cakes, beer sesame oil and meat. During the reign of Rameses III, the workmen did not receive the correct grain ration and they therefore went on strike. They took their complaints to the administrative center at Medinet Habu. This may have been the first recorded strike in history, but it was not the last as several strikes and sit-ins were needed to regularize their situation.