Architects and Designers
Ancient Egyptian
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The vizier and master builder of the pharaoh Djoser in the twenty-seventh century BC, credited in Egyptian tradition with the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first great monument of cut stone, and the earliest architect in history whose name is recorded. Later ages deified him as a god of wisdom and medicine.
Facts
Defining ContributionThe Step Pyramid at Saqqara; the first named architect in history 1 Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
Where is Imhotep's tomb?
Imhotep was deified by later Egyptians as a god of medicine and wisdom, and his name is recorded on statue-base inscriptions of the pharaoh Djoser, but despite extensive archaeological search at Saqqara, most notably by Walter Bryan Emery in the mid twentieth century, his own burial place has never been positively identified.
What would resolve this Discovery and secure identification of an intact or inscribed burial context naming Imhotep, most likely somewhere in the Saqqara necropolis, where later pilgrims left votive offerings and animal mummies dedicated to him without ever marking the tomb itself.
Egyptology and field archaeologyEncyclopedia Britannica
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