Quick answer
Djoser was a Third Dynasty king who ruled Egypt for about two decades around 2670–2650 BC, and Imhotep was his chief official and, by later tradition, the architect of his Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first large building made entirely of stone. Djoser began the pyramid age; Imhotep was eventually worshipped as a god of wisdom and medicine.
Who was King Djoser?
Djoser was the most important king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty, ruling for roughly two decades around 2670–2650 BC, and the first pharaoh to be buried beneath a pyramid. In his own lifetime he was known by his Horus name, Netjerikhet, “divine of body”. The name Djoser only appears in records written many centuries later, such as the graffiti that New Kingdom visitors scratched on the walls of his complex while admiring it as an antiquity.
He was probably a son of Khasekhemwy, the last king of the Second Dynasty, and Queen Nimaathap, whose name appears on seal impressions from both reigns. Beyond that, the events of his reign are thin: inscriptions record expeditions to the copper and turquoise mines of Sinai, and the sheer scale of his monument shows a state at Memphis able to feed, house and organise thousands of workers. The Turin King List, compiled more than a thousand years later, gives him 19 years. Some Egyptologists think he reigned longer, and even his place in the order of Third Dynasty kings is still debated.
Who was Imhotep, really?
Imhotep was a real man: Djoser’s chancellor and leading official, whose name and titles are carved on the base of a statue of the king found inside the Step Pyramid complex. The inscription, found during excavations in the 1920s, calls him chancellor of the king of Lower Egypt, first after the king, administrator of the great palace, high priest of Heliopolis, and “the builder, the sculptor, the maker of stone vessels”. For a commoner’s name to appear on a royal statue at all was extraordinary, and shows how close to the throne he stood.
That statue base is almost the only evidence from his own time. The idea that he personally designed the Step Pyramid comes from later tradition: Manetho, an Egyptian priest writing in Greek around 280 BC, credited Imhotep with inventing building in cut stone. Most Egyptologists accept that he directed the project, but nothing from Djoser’s reign says so in as many words. His tomb has never been found, though many suspect it lies somewhere in North Saqqara, close to his king.
How was the Step Pyramid built?
The Step Pyramid began as a square, flat-topped mastaba tomb and was enlarged in several stages until it became six stacked steps about 62 metres high. Earlier kings had been buried under mud-brick mastabas at Abydos and Saqqara. Djoser’s builders used small blocks of local limestone, laid in layers leaning inwards for stability, almost as if they were still thinking in mud brick. The finished base measures roughly 121 by 109 metres, not quite square, a clue to its piecemeal growth.
The pyramid was only the centrepiece. Around it ran a panelled enclosure wall about 1.6 km long and more than 10 metres high, with 14 false gateways and a single real entrance. Inside stand dummy buildings: solid chapels with stone doors carved permanently ajar, and columns imitating bundled reeds and palm logs. The builders were translating the timber, reed and mud architecture of the royal palace into stone for eternity, and you can still see their caution in columns joined to walls, as though stone could not yet be trusted to stand alone.
Our Saqqara guide walks you through the complex in order; for the engineering story that followed, read how the pyramids were built.
What lies beneath the pyramid?
Under the Step Pyramid a shaft about 28 metres deep drops to a granite burial vault, surrounded by several kilometres of tunnels and galleries. The vault was closed with a granite plug weighing several tonnes. Storage galleries nearby held tens of thousands of stone vessels, many inscribed with the names of earlier kings, perhaps gathered to honour the royal ancestors.
Other chambers were lined with blue-green faience tiles imitating reed matting, framing reliefs of Djoser running the ritual course of the Heb-Sed jubilee, the ceremony that renewed a king’s strength to rule. The same tiles appear in the South Tomb, a second underground burial inside the enclosure whose purpose is still argued over: it may have held the king’s internal organs, housed his ka (spirit), or stood for a symbolic burial in Upper Egypt. A long restoration of the pyramid and its substructure was completed in 2020, and parts of the interior have been opened to visitors at times since; check on the day whether access is possible and whether it needs an extra ticket.
How did Imhotep become a god?
Over two thousand years, Imhotep’s reputation grew from wise official to full god of healing and wisdom, worshipped as a son of the creator god Ptah. By the New Kingdom he was remembered as a great sage: a harper’s song copied in that period mentions hearing “the words of Imhotep and Hordedef”, though no writings by him survive. From the Late Period (after 664 BC) he was formally deified, and thousands of bronze statuettes show him seated with an unrolled papyrus on his knees and a close-fitting cap like Ptah’s.
The Greeks identified him with their healing god Asclepius and called him Imouthes. The sick slept at his shrines hoping for a cure in a dream, and his sanctuary at North Saqqara drew pilgrims for centuries. In the Ptolemaic period he shared a sanctuary on the upper terrace of Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahari with another deified official, Amenhotep son of Hapu, and a small temple to him was built at Philae. Even Edfu’s building texts claim the temple followed a plan handed down from Imhotep, a measure of how long his name carried weight among architects.
What do historians still argue about?
Almost everything beyond the bare outline is debated, which is part of the fascination. The main open questions are:
- Imhotep’s exact role: chief official for certain, chief architect by strong tradition rather than proof.
- Djoser’s body: fragments of a mummy found in the burial vault in the 1930s may be the king’s, but dating tests have suggested at least some belong to a later burial.
- The Famine Stela: a text carved on Sehel Island near Aswan says Djoser ended a seven-year famine on Imhotep’s advice by honouring the god Khnum. It was carved in the Ptolemaic period, more than 2,000 years after Djoser, and most scholars read it as priestly propaganda for Khnum’s temple estates rather than history.
- The order of kings: whether Djoser founded the Third Dynasty or followed a king called Nebka is still argued.
Where to see Djoser and Imhotep in Egypt today
Go to Saqqara, about 45 minutes’ drive south of the Giza hotels, where the Step Pyramid complex and the small Imhotep Museum at the site entrance tell their story together. In the complex, look through the peepholes of the serdab on the pyramid’s north side to see a replica of Djoser’s seated statue staring out. The Imhotep Museum, which opened in 2006, displays finds from the site, and at the time of writing it shows the inscribed statue base bearing Imhotep’s name along with a reconstructed wall of the blue faience tiles.
- The original serdab statue: the painted limestone figure of Djoser, the oldest life-size royal statue known from Egypt, has long been a highlight of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. Objects have been moving to the Grand Egyptian Museum, so check where it is displayed when you visit.
- The next chapter: drive another 20 minutes south to Dahshur, where Sneferu turned Djoser’s steps into the first true pyramid, a generation before Khufu built at Giza.
Saqqara, Memphis and Dahshur make one unhurried day from Cairo by private car, and are included on our Cairo and pyramids stopover.
Frequently asked questions
Did Imhotep build the pyramids of Giza?
No. Imhotep lived around 2650 BC, roughly a century before the Great Pyramid was built for Khufu. His Step Pyramid at Saqqara was the first step on the road that led to Giza.
Is the Imhotep in The Mummy films a real person?
Only the name is borrowed. The films invent a cursed high priest; the real Imhotep was a respected royal official who was later revered as a healer and sage, with nothing sinister attached to him in Egyptian tradition.
How old is the Step Pyramid of Djoser?
About 4,650 years old. It was built around 2670–2650 BC and is generally regarded as the oldest large building made entirely of cut stone anywhere in the world.
Can you go inside the Step Pyramid?
At times. After restoration was completed in 2020 parts of the underground galleries have been opened to visitors, sometimes on a separate ticket. Access changes, so check egymonuments.gov.eg or ask your guide before you go.
Why was Imhotep worshipped as a god?
His fame as a wise man and builder grew over many centuries until, in the Late Period, he was deified as a son of Ptah and a god of medicine. The Greeks equated him with their healing god Asclepius.
