The Workmen's Village, located in the desert east of the ancient city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna), was built during the reign of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. It housed the workers who constructed and decorated the tombs of the city's elite, making it comparable to the better studied Theban workers village of Deir el-Medina. Though an isolated part of Amarna, the Workmen's Village provides many well preserved artifacts and buildings allowing archaeologists to gather much information about how society functioned. Excavation history The Workmen's Village has been known since the surveys of Petrie, but was first excavated in 1921 by the Egypt Exploration Society. At this time it was known as the Eastern Village. Two seasons of excavation were undertaken by T. Eric Peet and Leonard Woolley; the first season excavated four houses as a test of the site and the second season excavated approximately half of the village. Some of the tomb chapels that surround the village were also excavated. The Egypt Exploration Society resumed excavations in 1979 led by Barry Kemp and concluded in 1986. These excavations focused on the areas immediately surrounding the walled village. Walled village The village is located on the floor of a Y-shaped valley. The South Tombs, which are within easy walking distance, are the only part of the city directly visible from this isolated location. The walled village from which the settlement takes its name occupies an area of approximately 70 square meters and is surrounded by an outer wall thick. It has a single entrance on the southern side and is divided into two unequal halves by an equally thick inner wall; this inner wall is the old outer wall as the western portion of the village is an expansion. Seventy-two houses of identical size are found inside this area, with one larger house with its own garden that presumably belonged to an official overseer; another larger house was found in the western section. Each house was wide and long, and constructed of mudbrick with some stone used around the base of the walls. Thresholds were often made of cut stone but no stone walls were found. The interior was divided into four main rooms: the "entrance hall", "living room", "bedroom", and "kitchen". Stairs, located either in front or rear of the house, led up to a second floor. In some houses the walls had been preserved to a height of