Imhotep. Statue of Imhotep, an Egyptian scholar, physician and architect who lived about 2800 BC. Imhotep was the vizier (advisor) to the pharoah Zoser. He was the architect of the first pyramid at Sakkara, Egypt. It was a step design, consisting of seven layers. Imhotep was the earliest named physician and had legendary powers of healing. After his death he was deified by the Egyptians as the son of the god Ptah and identified by the Greeks as Aesculapius, god of medicine. His shrine was at Sakkara and was visited by pilgrims seeking divine cures for their illnesses.