North-East of the village, a large, very fortress-like mudbrick enclosure wall (the last built of this type in Egypt) protects a Ptolemaic Hathor temple erected between the 3rd and 2nd century BCE. The 15x9m building, in excellent condition, presents an architectural programme typical for a provincial town temple: a columned hall leads over a few steps up to a narrow, screen-walled pronaos preceding a tripartite shrine, dedicated to Hathor-Maat (centre), Amen-Re-Osiris (right), and Amen-Sokar-Osiris (left).
However, the compound and its immediate surroundings encompass a multi-layered religious complex which has revealed 16 to 18 chapels and small temples, dating all the way back to the very beginning of the 18th Dynasty and the foundation of the village (see plan for the temple’s development phases).
First excavated thoroughly by Bruyère in 1939, the site revealed, 6m below the sand, a Ramesside golden age, attested by cultic temples for Sethi I and Ramesses II. Many finds in situ, notably statues of viziers and local individuals, confirm a temple practice not dissimilar to its grander Theban neighbours.
Eventually the complex housed a Coptic church which gave its name to the site, ‘monastery of the town’.
Further reading
Bruyère, B. (1948). Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Médineh (1935-1940) – Fascicule I: Les fouilles et les découvertes de constructions, FIFAO 20.1. Le Caire: IFAO.
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