Around 2650 B.C., King Zoser of Egypt commissioned a royal
burial chamber to be built at Saqqara, near Memphis. Thousands
of limestone blocks from the quarries at Awsan were transported
450 miles from Aswan to Saqqara. It is very likely that Imhotep
was the architect who planned Egypt's first large-scale stone
monument: the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. "The first real person in
known history is not a conqueror or a king but an artist and a
scientist -- Imhotep, physician, architect and chief adviser of
King Zoser (ca. 3150 B.C.). He did so much for Egyptian medicine
that later generations worshiped him as a god of knowledge,
author of their sciences and their arts; and at the same time he
appears to have founded the school of architecture which
provided the next dynasty with the first great builders in
history." (Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Volume One,
p. 147). Imhotep was also the high priest of the influential sun
cult centered at the temple of Heliopolis. In later years
Imhotep was worshipped as a