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4th
day (West
bank)
- The
ancient worker village at Deir El
Médineh nestled in a small valley
between the valley of the Kings and the valley of the
Queens: generations of artists and workers who built and
decorated the royal tombs lived there in isolation
because their activities were to remain secret. Its
interest is two-fold: first, this village is the biggest
civil residential area ever discovered, second, these
workers also built their own tombs. The three tombs
presently opened to visit, though modest compared to
royal tombs, show interesting daily life scenes painted
with vivid colours.
¤ Sennedjem's
tomb shows
scenes
where
the deceased and his wife in adoration of several gods,
especially the Goddess of the West or Goddess of the
sycamore, symbolic tree of the garden of the beyond. In
another scene, the deceased are seen plowing, seeding
and harvesting in the Fields of Ialu, the Egyptian view
of the world of the beyond
;
¤ Inerkhau's
tomb presents
a beautiful scene representing the cat of Helioplis
slaying the Apophis serpent and another where the
deceased are under the charm of the music played by a
blind harpist ;
¤ Pashedu's
tomb is
further up from the two other tombs and the view on the
remains of the village is beautiful. Another ticket is
required to visit it. A remarkable and complex
mythological scene shows a deity raising a burning
brazier to Osiris while an udjat-eye, in the Mountain of
the West, holds a second burning
brazier.
Before
leaving Deir El-Medineh, visit the small well
preserved
Ptolemaic temple,
dedicated to the Goddess Hathor. It is located above the
village, near the pass to the next valley. Inside, three
chapels have interesting decorations
:
¤ in
the chapel to the right, several deities including
Hathor appearing as a woman but also as a cow
;
¤
in
the chapel to the left, an interesting scene of the
Judgement of the Dead overseen by Osiris assisted by
several judges. The heart of the deceased is weighed
against Ma'at's feather that symbolizes Truth and
Justice. Thoth, the Ibis-headed God, records the result
of the test; the Devourer of Souls is sitting by the
scale, ready to eat the person should his heart be
heavier than Ma'at's feather.
- the
Valley of the
Queens,
close to the worker village, where are about sixty
tombs, from simple to beautiful ones, where queens,
princes and princesses, but also priests and high rank
civil servants at the Lower Period, were buried.
Nowadays, three tombs only are opened to visit (the most
beautiful, a masterpiece of Egyptian tombs, the tomb of
Nefertari, the Great Wife of Ramesses
II, can no longer be visited): the tombs of Prince
Amun-her-khepeshef,
of Prince Khaemwaset,
both sons of Ramesses III, and of
Queen
Tyti,
a royal wife of the XXth dynasty. The painted
reliefs, freshly coloured and carefully realized, are
exceptional.
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