With the first civil housing known to date, this old village is a mine of information on the "men of the tomb", the craftsmen of the XIX and XX Dynasties. These labourers who were authorised to prepare the royal burial places in the Valley of the Kings (excavators, plasterers, draughtsmen, sculptors and painters) worked under the control of the vizier. They also built their own tombs: three of these can be visited (tombs of Sennedjem, Inerkhau and Pashed) and have fine paintings depicting the lives of the deceased.