Imhotep, the genius we made god

Imhotep, the genius we made god
Imhotep
Before being a god, he was a genius architect

Around 2650 BC, a man in the service of Pharaoh Djoser will forever upset Kemet architecture. Imhotep combines the functions of vizier, high priest, doctor and royal architect – a rare versatility that testifies to the extent of his knowledge. It was to him that the conception of the stepped pyramid of Saqqarah, considered the first large stone building in human history.

Before Imhotep, Kemet royal tombs, called mastabas, were built of raw bricks and remained relatively modest. Its stepped pyramid, a stack of six mastabas of decreasing size culminating at more than 60 meters, marks a total technological and symbolic break. It inaugurates a monumental tradition that will lead, a century later, to the famous smooth pyramids of Giza.

Imhotep’s genius is not limited to architecture. It is also associated with medical texts of remarkable rigor for the time, describing diagnoses and almost clinical treatments. This reputation as a complete scholar has crossed the centuries, so that his name remains attached to Kemet wisdom long after the end of his own life.

What makes his story truly exceptional is what happened after his death: more than 2000 years later, Kemet people elevated him to the rank of the god of medicine, associating him with the god Ptah. No other architect or civil servant in Kemet history has known such a fate. Imhotep remains one of the few documented examples of a historical human being who became a full-fledged deity in an ancient religion.

• What job deserves to be ‘divinized’ today? Say it in comments.