Imhotep (fl. ca. 3000 B.C.) was one of world history's most versatile geniuses. Inventor of the pyramid, author of ancient wisdom, architect, high priest, physician, astronomer, and scribe, Imhotep's prodigious talents and vast acquired knowledge had such an effect on his Egyptian contemporaries that he became one of only a handful of individuals of nonroyal birth to be promoted to godhood.

Until the late-nineteenth century Egyptologists knew Imhotep, who lived around 3,000 B.C., as a demigod (a mortal with almost divine powers) and then a full deity (or god) of medicine, with numerous temples and a well-organized cult devoted to him between 525 B.C. and 550 A.D. His name was inscribed alongside such powerful deities as Isis and Thoth, but they were purely religious and legendary figures. Until the 1926 discovery at Sakkara of a statue base describing Imhotep as a sculptor and carpenter, a human contemporary of King...