Facts about Imhotep

Three thousand years after his death, Imhotep was still celebrated as the embodiment of Egyptian wisdom.

An inscription from Upper Egypt, dating from the Ptolemaic period, mentions a famine of seven years during the time of Imhotep.

Imhotep's success in his advisory role creates an obvious parallel between himself and the biblical hero Joseph, son of Jacob, a similarity that has long been commented upon.

Only when the god himself, Imhotep, appeared in a vision ... was the man cured.

Given his association with medicine and healing, it is understandable that Imhotep came to be seen as the divine patron of the physician's arts.

More recently, the Joseph parallels have led some alternative historians to actually identify Imhotep with Joseph, and to argue that the thousand years supposedly separating them are simply indicative of a faulty chronology.

Imhotep, often thought to have been a Memphite commoner, entered into the service of King Djoser (reigned ca.

Imhotep (sometimes spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, or Ii-em-Hotep, Egyptian ii-m-?tp *j?-im-?at?p meaning "the one who comes in peace"), an Egyptian polymath, served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser (reigned ca.