Published By: Manjit Saikia

Imhotep – world’s first architect and possibly world’s first physician

Did you know that the villainous mummy in the Brandon Fraser starrer “Mummy” is named after one of the greatest thinkers in ancient history? Imhotep was an Egyptian architect, physician and advisor to four pharaohs. 

Imhotep was born in a common household without any royal titles. From such modest background, he advanced to the position of one of the most important and influential men in Egypt through his sheer natural talents. That makes the story of Imhotep even more appealing. Imhotep was a priest, a vizier to kings, a poet, physician, mathematician, astronomer, architect, herbalist, surgeon, and philosopher. He is also accredited for inventing trigonometry. After his death, Imhotep would be deified as a benevolent god of healing and medicine – only the second commoner in Egyptian history to achieve such a feat.

The Architect

Imhotep started out as a temple priest and soon became the high priest of Ptah. It was because of his deep understanding of the will of gods that pharaoh Djoser ordered him to oversee the construction of king’s eternal home. That eventually became the Step Pyramid at Saccara – Imhotep’s greatest achievement. The early tombs of Egyptian kings were rectangular structure of dried mud. Imhotep changed the traditional rectangular design into a square one. He then shifted from dried mud bricks to a sturdier option – limestone. This became the basic blueprint of all the pyramids to be built thereafter. During the course of building the Step pyramid, Imhotep also became thefirst to use stone columns to support a building.

When it was finally complete, the Step pyramid stood 204 feet high above the ground and was the tallest building of its time. It wasn’t just a pyramid but a whole complex which includes temples, shrines, courtyards, living quarters for priests sprawling across 40 acres of land. The whole 40 acres were surrounded by a 30 feet high wall which is again ringed by a trench almost 2,500 feet long and more than 130 feet wide. It instantly became “a stage and an architectural model for the spiritual ideals of the Egyptian people”, according to historian Margaret Bunson. King Djoser was so impressed that he broke traditions and had Imhotep’s name inscribed in the monument as well, thus making him immortal too.

God of healing and medicine

More than 2,000 years before Hippocrates – the father of modern medicine was even born; Imhotep was practicing medicine and writing on the subject. His skill as an architect gave him instant fame but it was his medical treatises that built his legacy. He was one of the first ones who regarded diseases as naturally occurring and not some punishment sent by the Gods.  Imhotep’s medical treatises were used for centuries and is one of the most complete ancient Egyptian documents about medicine that discusses scores of injuries, illness and their treatment.

After his death, Imhotep was deified as a benevolent god of healing and medicine. His influence was so far reaching that his name was inscribed in temples in far away Greece, equating him with Asclepius – the Greek demigod of healing.