Imhotep, the son of Ptah
May I present myself? I am Imhotep. I was born
about 4670 years ago in Egypt. That is a very long
time. I am afraid that so many years is hardly to
imagine for you. To give you some idea, let us
represent time as a long snake, with a head of 1
cm. Let we suppose that your age is 10 now, and
that your age matches the head of the snake. To go
back in time 4670 years, we must give the snake a
body of almost 4 meters and 70 cm.! Incredible,
isn’t it? The name of the city where I was born was
Memphis , close to the present Cairo, the capital of
Egypt. I did many good and wonderful things for
Egypt, because I was gifted by God with great
knowledge and wisdom. I was a skilful architect, a
well-known writer and a great healer. Moreover I
have been the most important counsellor of one of
the first famous kings who ruled over Egypt. His
name was Djoser. But I was also a reliable helper
who assisted ordinary people. I helped them in their
daily problems, when they were anxious, or in
distress. God gave me the power to heal them, if
they were ill. I protected the pregnant. I got the
woman who could not fall pregnant with a baby. I
gave a son to everyone who implored it. I
comforted them all and made them happy. For that
reason I was venerated as a god. In ancient times
Egyptian people made many small statues of me.
They often depicted me on their monuments. Truly,
I am proud to be the son of the mighty god Ptah .
Therefore I wear the same blue cap as he does. As
you can see below (Fig. 1 ), I am portrayed sitting on
a chair, with a papyrus scroll on my knees.
Imhotep, the Mediator.
Because they trusted me so much, people came to
me at the entrance of the temples. I heard their
prayers and spoke on their behalf to the great god,
who dwelled hidden in the inner part of the temple.
Once, I even rescued the Egyptians from death,
after the river Nile did not inundate Egypt during
seven years. The whole country was dried out.
There was no food for man and cattle. So everyone
suffered from famine. It was I who advised the King
what he had to do, in order to bring the flood back
to Egypt.
Imhotep, the architect
You can see one of my famous works even
nowadays. When you go to Saqqara Necropolis,
about 20 km. wards South from Cairo, you will find
king Djoser’s tomb which I designed and built. He
has been buried in it. Look the picture
representation on the drawing at the top of the
facing page (Fig . 2). Such a building is called a
pyramid. Today, thousands of tourists from all over
the world come daily to admire that building. It
became the model for all great pyramids that have
been built for Egyptian kings who lived after me.
You can visit them at Giza, near Cairo. The three
pyramids that you see on the bottom of the facing
page (Fig . 3) are those of the kings Mycerinus (left),
Chephren (in the middle) and Cheops (right) at
Giza. They are the biggest and most famous
pyramids of Egypt. But there are also many other
smaller pyramids, elsewhere in the country.
Egypt before the High Dam
You will understand now, that I, Imhotep, can tell
you about Ancient Egypt better than anyone else.
Let us start at the beginning. First of all, you must
know that modern Egypt is quite different from
ancient times. In my time, the water of the river Nile
was not yet blocked and controlled by the Great
Dam, which is now in the South, near the city called
Aswan . In my time the name of that place was
Elephantine . Can you find this city on the map (Fig .
4)? The Great Dam was only built about 80 years
ago. Before than, the Nile would rise every summer,
about 19 July. It burst its banks and flooded the
whole country. Then, Egypt looked like an ocean.
From the North to the South, from the eastern
desert to the western desert, the whole land was
flooded (Fig . 5). During some months the water
stood above the fields and saturated the soil. As it
drained, firstly the hills emerged, than the lower
parts of the country. The water of the flood left a
layer of fertile sludge which covered the fields. This
happened from time immemorial, and so, Egypt
became famous as the most fertile country of the
world. You will understand now, that Egypt was
called “Gift of the River”. Thanks to the flooding of
the Nile there was plenty of food for everybody:
grain, herbs, fruit and also meat, fowl and fish. But
sometimes the Nile did not overflow. In that case,
the fields that were dried up, could not be worked.
The soil was far too hard. Rain is very rare in Egypt.
I only rains a little in Egypt. Thus, it is not difficult
to imagine, that life in Egypt was impossible
without the yearly flood. Without water, nothing can
grow. If the Nile did not flood, as a result, there was
no food for people and animals. There was famine
in the land, and thousands of people and animals
died. Conversely, the Nile could rise too high. Then,
many things were destroyed in the country.
Thousands of people and animals were swept away
by the raging waves of the flood and drowned. All
stocks were destroyed. So, there were nothing for
the survivors to eat. Also it could happen that the
flood water did not arrive in time in Egypt. The Nile
could overflow too late, or the flood could begin
too early, in which case the fields could not be
worked on time. As a result, the crop became
small. But, thanks to God, as a rule, the flood
brought prosperity and happiness for everybody.
Hapy, god of the flood
Now, you understand, I hope, that people in
Ancient Egypt believed that annual coming of the
flood was the work of a mighty and powerful god. It
could not be the work of man. It could not be by
accident either. Only a god could do something like
that. The Egyptians called him Hapy . He is the god
of the inundation. Every year, when Hapy arrived at
the southern border of Egypt and the Nile burst its
banks, people honoured him with great exuberant
feasts. In fact, Hapy was a god of abundance, a god
who nurtured man. How would you represent such
a god? On the next page, you can see how the
Ancient Egyptian portrayed him (Fig . 6). They gave
this god female breasts. Strange, isn’t it? But do you
know a better way to represent nourishing, than the
motherly breast which fed you when you were a
baby? And to express the many gifts of the flood,
the Egyptians represented Hapy with a fat belly.
Notice the lines that are depicted all over his body!
They represent the sign for water . In his hands,
he has an offering table . Three signs for life are
hanging down from it. Three expresses abundance.
So Hapy brings abundant life. In his hands he also
holds the staff that conveys the prosperity that the
inundation brings. The sign means life. Tourists
often buy this sign as a pendant to hang on their
necklaces. And the sign stands for prosperity.
Such signs are called hieroglyphs.
http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/attachments/GEM_Imhotep.pdf
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