Discover Egypt's Real 'Mummy'

Young people all over the globe enjoy an eyeful of mummies, curses, magic and excitement with theatrical releases like ‘The Mummy’ and ‘The Mummy Returns’ in 1999 and 2001. And while handsome actor Arnold Vosloo certainly made a dashing and exciting character in the movies, how many people know there actually was an Imhotep? In the popular movies, Imhotep was portrayed as a man in love with Aneksunamun, a man willing to risk all in his present life and the next to keep her, even to the point of bringing her back to life- but fact is stranger than fiction, and sometimes even more romantic than in the movies. The real Imhotep truly was a high priest, but he wasn’t buried alive, nor locked in a sarcophagus filled with teeming scarabs.

Imhotep, whose name means, “The one that comes in peace”, lived over 4,000 years ago. Born a common man around 2980 B.C., he rose to prominence during the reign of Djoser, who ruled from 2630 to 2611 BC, in the 3rd Egyptian dynasty. Imhotep eventually served four pharaohs and is credited with building the first stone structure in the world, a step pyramid located in Saqqara, Egypt. Not much is known of Imhotep’s ancestry, but historians believe he was born in Ankhtowë, a sort of suburb of the city of Memphis… not Elvis’ hometown in Tennessee, but the Memphis in Egypt, which used to be the Egyptian capital. Still others think he came from a village called Gebelein, which is found south of the ancient city of Thebes. Because of his intelligence, hard work and natural gifts, he rose quickly to positions of importance, but Imhotep was more than an architect. He was also a priest, a scribe, a poet, an astrologer, a vizier - a sort of highly placed executive officer, and a chief minister. Even more so, he was also known as the true father of medicine. He is known to have written medical and instructional texts which were unfortunately destroyed when Alexandria burned.