Imhotep : The one who comes in, with Peace

Imhotep (meaning, “the one who comes in with peace”) was born in Ankhtowe, Egypt, in 3000 BCE. The reasons as to why Imhotep stands out so strongly in the history of the world are numerous, but one of the most important and intriguing facts is the fact that he was born as a commoner. In ancient Egyptian society, it was certainly not uncommon for a King to be deified (considered a God by the masses) or to be considered a demi-God (a mortal with God-like powers). The idea of a commoner ascending to the rank of God or demi-God would have been preposterous and unheard of. However, with almost every typicality, there's an exception. The exception, in this case, is Imhotep. Though Imhotep was born a commoner, he became deified, and rose to a very high political and industrial ranking. He was given the position of “vizier” (meaning “supervisor of everything in the entire land) under King Djoser; this meant he was in charge of the military, judicial, agricultural, treasury, and interior departments in Egypt.

Achievements in Life

Imhotep's deification stemmed largely from his proficiency with medicine. He is widely regarded as being the world's first physician (though there were many people that treated injuries before Imhotep's time). It is widely believed that Imhotep composed the “Edwin Smith Papyrus” medical textbook, which had descriptions of 48 bodily injuries, alongside over 90 different definitions of some of the anatomical components of the human body. He's also known to have identified and successfully treated over 200 maladies that afflicted Egyptian citizens, and it's suspected that he founded a medical school in Memphis, Egypt. These accomplished are what ultimately led to him being declared the God of medicine (and indeed, he had a strong cult following, up to and including the Roman conquering of Egypt).

In addition to his truly astounding medical achievements, Imhotep was a brilliant architect. He's responsible for constructing the world's first pyramid (Djoser's step-pyramid, located in Saqqara, Egypt) which was also the world's first significant structure constructed from stone (before Imhotep, most buildings were assembled using sun-dried mud; Imhotep realized the fact that utilizing large limestone blocks to assemble a structure would result in a much more architecturally sound building, and ultimately, a much more long-standing one).

Imhotep was additionally recognized as being the High Priest of Heliopolis, Egypt (which was considered to be the religious epicentre of the ancient Egyptian world). It's said that he was solely responsible for ending a famine that'd lasted for 7 years, by advising King Djoser on how to better appease the Gods.