---
node: imhotep
type: person
slug: imhotep
title: "Imhotep"
lead: "Imhotep (active c. 2650 BC) was a high official and vizier of King Djoser, credited as the architect of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. He became one of very few non-royal Egyptians to be deified."
published: 2026-07-10
updated: 2026-07-10
image_file: imhotep.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_-_Seated_Imhotep_-_Walters_54402.jpg"
image_author: "Walters Art Museum"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Who they were

Imhotep was a high official and vizier of King Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty, active around 2650 BC. He also served as high priest of Ra at Heliopolis.

## What they did

He is credited as the architect of Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara — the prototype of all later pyramids and among the earliest monumental stone architecture.

## Legacy

In the Late Period Imhotep was worshipped as a god of medicine and healing, and the Greeks identified him with their own healing god Asclepius. His reputation as a physician, however, rests on later tradition — no medical writings by him survive. His tomb has never been identified.