Imhotep
2667?-2648? B.C.
Egyptian Vizier, Chief Priest, and Architect
Imhotep was an Egyptian official who served the third-dynasty pharaoh Djoser (r. 2630-2611 B.C.) as vizier, chief priest of the sun god, and chief architect. A commoner, Imhotep rose through the ranks at court to become so respected as a sage, architect, and healer that he was later deified and worshipped as a god. Today he is best known for building the Step Pyramid, one of the world's earliest stone monuments and the first pyramid in Egypt.
As Djoser's chief advisor, Imhotep was assigned the important task of building the pharaoh's tomb at Saqqara. At first Imhotep planned to build the traditional square mastaba tomb, but through a series of changes his plan evolved into Egypt's first pyramid, which he built in stages like stairs. Not only did Imhotep build his pharaoh a symbolic "stairway to heaven," but he built it to last forever, from stone instead of the more traditional mud brick. Because working with stone is much different than working with mud brick, Imhotep had to develop new building techniques so that the pyramid would not collapse under its own weight. When it was finished, the pyramid rose in six stages to a height of about 200 feet (60 m). The chamber for the pharaoh's body was dug deep into the rock under the pyramid, along with 3.5 miles (5.5 km)of shafts, tunnels, galleries, and storage rooms.
Imhotep's vision for Djoser's tomb did not end with the Step Pyramid, but extended to a huge, complex surrounding the pyramid-chapels, tombs, shrines, terraces, courtyards, life-size statues, and subterranean passageways, all built of stone. When it was finished, a stone wall 34-feet (10 m) high surrounded the complex of buildings, covering an area of about 37 acres (1.5 sq km). All the stone surfaces in the complex displayed various hand-carved decorations, including buttresses and recesses, fluted columns, papyrus-shaped capitols, and pictorial wall reliefs. Imhotep's achievement at Saqqara involved more than architecture. The whole complex was constructed to express Imhotep's vision of king and country. Egyptologists think that the complex was as large as a large town of the time.
It is clear that by building the pyramid complex, Imhotep was attempting to give material expression to the spiritual ideals of the Egyptians while providing Djoser with a model city to rule in the afterlife. Nothing on this scale had ever been attempted before, and the political implications of Imhotep's achievement are almost as important as the work itself. Only a very strong central authority could hope to muster, organize, support, and finance the labor involved in such an undertaking. Although the step pyramid was adopted as the standard type of tomb for hundreds of years, the vast complexity of the Step Pyramid complex was not repeated. The incredible organization necessary to build Djoser's complex anticipated the political structures required to build the great pyramids of the fourth dynasty (c. 2597-2475 B.C.).
In addition to his talents as an architect, Imhotep was famous in antiquity for his wisdom and his skill as a doctor. Ancient Egyptians attributed the earliest "wisdom texts" to him, although none of them has survived. Although there is no contemporary evidence that Imhotep was a doctor, he was invoked as a healer in twelfth dynasty (1938-c. 1756 B.C.) inscriptions and was worshipped as a god of medicine, possibly as early asthe nineteenth dynasty (1292-c. 1190 B.C.). Later in the Ptolemaic period (310-330 B.C.), the Greeks equated Imhotep with their god of healing, Asclepios, and Ptolemy VIII built a shrine to him. The cult was still active during the first century A.D. when two Roman emperors, Tiberius and Claudius, praised Imhotep in the inscriptions on the walls of their Egyptian temples.
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