Thebes - Cemetery of Deir el-Medina

To the south of the temple, in the valley between the western hills and the Hill of Ournet Murai, are the remains of a settlement occupied during the New Kingdom by artists and workmen engaged in the construction of the royal and private tombs. On the west side of the valley is the Cemetery of Deir el-Medina, with many rock tombs, mostly belonging to officials of the necropolis during the 19th and 20th Dynasties, together with a few dating from the 18th. In the tombs of the Ramessid period the scenes of everyday life which are the great attraction of the 18th Dynasty tombs are almost wholly absent, giving place to conventional representations of offerings and funeral rites and scenes from the "Book of the Dead".