2650 BC – 2640 BCs

Events in 2650 BC – 2640 BC 2

• 2650 BC – 2600 BC Imhotep -- the first genius Imhotep (c.2650-2600 BC) is the first named architect, physician and polymath in recorded history. He serves as vizier and chief architect to Pharaoh Djoser (2668-2649 BC) and designs the Step Pyramid at Saqqara -- the world's first large-scale stone monument. He is also revered as a physician and is later deified as a god of medicine (the Greeks identify him with Asclepius). His writings on medicine, astronomy and architecture are lost but are referenced by later authors. That an individual craftsman and administrator is remembered by name 4,500 years later speaks to the impression he made.
• 2650 BC – 2630 BC Step Pyramid of Djoser -- the first pyramid The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara (c.2650-2630 BC), designed by Imhotep, is the world's first large-scale stone monument and the prototype for all later pyramids. Beginning as a mastaba (flat-topped rectangular tomb), it is expanded six times into a six-stepped pyramid 62 metres high -- the first time Egyptians build in cut stone on a monumental scale rather than mud brick. The surrounding complex -- including a mortuary temple, a serdab (statue chamber), a Heb-Sed court and dummy buildings -- covers 15 hectares and is enclosed by a niched limestone wall 1.6km in circumference. It establishes the template for royal funerary architecture that Khufu and his successors will develop to its ultimate expression.