Continued on page 4 Fellow medical practitioners who recoil at jokes about doctors who think they are gods, take comfort .... there was one who made it. He was called Imhotep, Egyptian for ‘he who comes in peace’. (fig. 1) Breasted1, the noted Egyptologist, recalling the first 3,000 years of civilization, stated, “....the history of the world had largely been the irresistable drift of tradition. The outstanding exception was the great architect-physician, Imhotep. Otherwise men had been but drops of water in the great tide.” Imhotep lived in the Third Dynasty of Egypt (2780-2720 B.C.)* during the rule of King Zoser. Born the son of the architect, Kanofer, it was as an architect that Imhotep left his most visable foot print on history. He designed and built the first pyramid. (fig. 2) The step pyramid of Sakkara, near Memphis was to serve as the tomb for King Zoser, and become the inspiration for all monumental stone structures which followed. When the step pyramid was unearthed in the 1920’s, the base of a statue of Imhotep was found. (fig. 3) The inscription attests to his talents. “The Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, The First after the King of Upper Egypt, Administrator of the Great Place, Hereditary Lord, High Priest of Heliopolis, Imhotep, the Builder, the Sculptor, the Maker of Stone Vases.”3 The last and most innocuous title of ‘maker of stone vases’ was perhaps the most prophetic legacy. The craftsmen of his time were molders of mud and straw bricks, makers of wattle houses, and potters of clay. The product was like its maker.....perishable. Until Imhotep envisioned the pyramid, Kings were buried in a deep ditch covered by a dirt mound