Imhotep

Imhotep was an <a href="/facts/Ancient_Egyptians/BDsEGK4g">Egyptian</a> chancellor to the King <a href="/facts/Djoser/0wvWpl0y">Djoser</a>, possible architect of <a href="/facts/Pyramid_of_Djoser/Qu8yXfQf">Djoser's step pyramid</a>, and <a href="/facts/Clergy_of_ancient_Egypt/XyddS9Np">high priest</a> of the sun god <a href="/facts/Ra/LxS7qnXm">Ra</a> at <a href="/facts/Heliopolis_(Ancient_Egypt)/akmPCds6">Heliopolis</a>. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure, but in the 3,000 years following his death, he was gradually glorified and <a href="/facts/Deifying/67vWy7Uv">deified</a>.
Traditions from long after Imhotep's death treated him as a great author of <a href="/facts/Sebayt/lxPD44UH">wisdom texts</a> and especially as a physician. No text from his lifetime mentions these capacities and no text mentions his name in the first 1,200 years following his death. Apart from the three short contemporary inscriptions that establish him as chancellor to the Pharaoh, the first text to refer to Imhotep dates to the time of <a href="/facts/Amenhotep_III/fJckzGAz">Amenhotep III</a> (c. 1391–1353 BC). It is addressed to the owner of a tomb and reads:

<blockquote>The <a href="/facts/Priest/fDMmV2wN">wab-priest</a> may give offerings to your <a href="/facts/Ancient_Egyptian_conception_of_the_soul/wU03bJh5">ka</a>. The wab-priests may stretch to you their arms with libations on the soil, as it is done for Imhotep with the remains of the water bowl.— Wildung (1977)</blockquote>
It appears that this libation to Imhotep was done regularly, as they are attested on papyri associated with statues of Imhotep until the Late Period (c. 664–332 BC). Wildung (1977) explains the origin of this cult as a slow evolution of intellectuals' memory of Imhotep, from his death onward. <a href="/facts/Alan_Gardiner/U2mbEGyS">Gardiner</a> finds the cult of Imhotep during the <a href="/facts/New_Kingdom_of_Egypt/8cpKbCI0">New Kingdom</a> (c. 1550–1077 BC) sufficiently distinct from the usual offerings made to other commoners that the epithet "<a href="/facts/Demigod/uKDPFQdT">demigod</a>" is likely justified to describe his veneration.
The first references to the healing abilities of Imhotep occur from the <a href="/facts/Thirtieth_Dynasty_of_Egypt/8f30YA72">Thirtieth Dynasty</a> (c. 380–343 BC) onward, some 2,200 years after his death.: 127 : 44 
Imhotep is among fewer than a dozen non-royal Egyptians who were <a href="/facts/Apotheosis/67vWy7Uv">deified</a> after their deaths. The center of his cult was in <a href="/facts/Memphis%2c_Egypt/g8BoleBx">Memphis</a>. The location of his tomb remains unknown, despite efforts to find it. The consensus is that it is hidden somewhere at <a href="/facts/Saqqara/QtU8ETnb">Saqqara</a>.

Imhotep open-in-new

Imhotep