Imhotep (; "(the one who) comes in peace"; ) was an Egyptian chancellor to the King Djoser, possible architect of Djoser's step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure, but in the 3,000 years following his death, he was gradually glorified and deified.
Traditions from long after Imhotep's death treated him as a great author of wisdom texts and especially as a physician. No extant text from his lifetime mentions these capacities, and none mention his name in the first 1,200 years following his death. The Westcar Papyrus of the Hyksos period, written in classical Middle Egyptian (likely around the 13th Dynasty), contains a story about an official performing a miracle for Djoser, possibly Imhotep. However, this section is badly damaged and no mention of this character's name survived.
Apart from the two short contemporary inscriptions that establish him as chancellor to the Pharaoh, the first surviving text to name Imhotep dates to the time of Amenhotep III (). It is addressed to the owner of a tomb and reads: