Imhotep in hieroglyphs | ||||||
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Imhotep Jj m ḥtp He who comes in peace |
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Jj m ḥtp |
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Jj m ḥtp |
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Greek Manetho variants: |
Africanus: Imouthes Eusebius: missing Eusebius, AV: missing |
Imhotep (/ɪmˈhoʊtɛp/; also spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, or Ii-em-Hotep; called Imuthes (Ἰμούθης) by the Greeks; fl. 27th century BC (c. 2650–2600 BC); Egyptian: ỉỉ-m-ḥtp *jā-im-ḥātap meaning "the one who comes in peace, is with peace") was an Egyptian polymath who served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. He is considered by some to be the earliest known architect,engineer, and physician in history, though two other Egyptian figures identified as physicians, Hesy-Ra and Merit-Ptah, lived around the same time. The full list of his titles is:
He was one of only a few commoners ever to be accorded divine status after death. The center of his cult was Memphis. From the First Intermediate Period onward Imhotep was also revered as a poet and philosopher. His sayings were famously referenced in poems: "I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hordedef with whose discourses men speak so much."
The location of Imhotep's self-constructed tomb was well hidden from the beginning and it remains unknown, despite efforts to find it. The consensus is that it is hidden somewhere at Saqqara.