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Imhotep in hieroglyphs: the architect's name and where it survives

25 October 2026

Imhotep's name is written ii-m-ḥtp, said "ee-em-hotep", and means "he who comes in peace". A reed leaf and a pair of walking legs write ii, "to come", an owl writes m, "in", and the offering mat with a loaf writes ḥtp, "peace".

He served King Djoser around 2650 BC and is credited with the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Only one object from his lifetime names him: the base of a statue of Djoser, found at the Step Pyramid. He never had a cartouche. Two thousand years later the Egyptians worshipped him as a god.

Six signs make the name

The reed leaf (M17) is i. The walking legs (D54) show movement and finish the verb ii, "to come". The owl (G17) is m, the word for "in". Then comes ḥtp, "peace" or "contentment": the offering mat with a loaf on it (R4), followed by the loaf t (X1) and the stool p (Q3) that spell out its last two sounds.

The same word ḥtp ends the names of kings: Amenhotep, "Amun is content", and Mentuhotep, "Montu is content". In Imhotep it describes a person. Names like his were given at birth and often greeted a new child.

Flowering reed Walking legs Owl Bread on an offering mat Bread loaf Stool

One statue base lists his titles

The proof that Imhotep lived is a limestone base of a statue of Djoser, found at the Step Pyramid in the 1920s. On its front is the king's Horus name, Netjerikhet, in its serekh. Beside it a separate text gives Imhotep's name and titles. He is chancellor of the king of Lower Egypt, first after the king, administrator of the great palace and high priest of Heliopolis. The text also calls him a builder and a sculptor.

The bee (L2) in "chancellor of the king of Lower Egypt" is the sign for that king. The column (O28) writes Iunu, Heliopolis, the city of the sun god Ra. A man whose name stands beside the king's on a royal statue was close to the throne.

Bee Column Falcon Cloth on a pole

Visit the Imhotep Museum

Later writers credited him with building in stone

Manetho, an Egyptian priest who wrote a history in Greek around 280 BC, says Imhotep invented building with dressed stone. Egyptians had used stone before Djoser, for floors and doorways. The Step Pyramid was the first large building made of it, six steps rising about 60 metres over a walled court of stone copies of reed and brick shrines.

No text from Djoser's time says that Imhotep designed it. The credit comes from his titles and from a long tradition. A graffito on the enclosure wall of Sekhemkhet's unfinished pyramid, also at Saqqara, names Imhotep too, which suggests he outlived Djoser and worked for the next king.

See the Step Pyramid

Imhotep became a god of medicine

Scribes came to honour him as a patron, and some poured a drop of water for him before they wrote. In the Late Period he was worshipped as a god, a son of Ptah, the creator god of Memphis. The first known references to his healing powers date from the 30th Dynasty, around 380 BC.

Bronze statuettes show him seated, a papyrus roll open on his knees, wearing a close-fitting cap. The Greeks matched him with Asklepios, their god of healing, and called him Imouthes. At Thebes he was worshipped beside Amenhotep son of Hapu, another official who became a god.

His tomb has never been found

Imhotep was probably buried at Saqqara, near his king. Archaeologists have searched for the tomb for more than a century. Walter Emery, digging in the north of the site in the 1960s, found catacombs of mummified ibises and other animals left by pilgrims, which he linked to Imhotep's cult. The tomb itself has not turned up.

Without a cartouche, his name is harder to spot. Look for it after titles, written in a short horizontal group: the reed, the legs, the owl and the offering mat.

Questions

Where can I see Imhotep's name in hieroglyphs?

On the base of a statue of Djoser found at the Step Pyramid. It has been shown in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and in the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara, so ask where it is on the day.

Did Imhotep write a cartouche?

No. He was an official, and cartouches were for kings and queens. His name is written plainly after his titles.

Was Imhotep a doctor?

No text from his lifetime says so. His fame as a healer comes from much later, when he was worshipped as a god of medicine.

Is the Imhotep of The Mummy films based on him?

Only the name. The real Imhotep was a high official of Djoser and later a god of wisdom, and no ancient text tells of a cursed priest.

Glossary

cartouche: An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
dynasty: A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
Horus name: The oldest of a king's names, written in a serekh under the Horus falcon. It names the king as the god Horus on earth.
Late Period: The last age of native Egyptian kings and of Persian rule, from 664 to 332 BC, when Alexander the Great took Egypt.
Lower Egypt: The north of Egypt, the flat Nile Delta from around Memphis to the sea. It is called lower because it is downstream.
mummification: Preserving a body for the afterlife. Embalmers took out the organs, dried the body in natron salt for about 40 days and wrapped it in linen.
papyrus: A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
priest: A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
pyramid: A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
scribe: A person trained to read and write, who kept accounts, wrote letters and copied texts. Few Egyptians could write, and scribes were well respected.
serekh: A frame showing the front of a palace, with a king's Horus name written above it and the Horus falcon on top. The oldest royal names are written in serekhs.
tomb: A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.