IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN...EXCERPT

"A lonely obelisk stands in the northeast part of the modern city of Cairo. It represents Heliopolis, the most revered "center of learning" of the ancient world. Most Egyptologists believe that Heliopolis existed long before the pyramids. It was known as Innu by the ancient Egyptians; later, the Hebrews called it On; much later still, the Greeks gave it the current name of Heliopolis, which means "City of the Sun." Today, local inhabitants call it Ain Shams, "Eye of the Sun. "Egyptologists tell us that Heliopolis was headed by a high priest--the 'our mau,' or Chief of the Observers--whose main function was to observe the night sky and the motion of the stars. One such high priest, indeed the earliest known to us by name and the most revered, was a man called Imhotep, "He Who Comes in Peace." So famous and admired was Imhotep that, during the latter part of Pharaonic civilization, he was venerated as a god. Later the Greeks regarded him as the Father of Medicine associating him with Asclepius and thus bestowing on him the unique position of being a historical human, not a king, who was officially deified.... "The truth, however, is that very little is known about Imhotep the man. Although he receives high praise from Egyptologists and historians alike and is often referred to as a genius--or the inventor of architecture or the father of science--Imhotep's true identity is largely the subject of guesswork and speculation. In fact, as the high priest of Heliopolis during the 3rd Dynasty of Egyptian kings, Imhotep's name appears less than half a dozen times in contemporary texts. The recent academic work on the 3rd Dynasty refers to him in only seven of its 300 pages, with most of the information culled from writings long after Imhotep's time. In short, one could say that Imhotep is a Jesus of deep antiquity--highly mythologized and eventually divinized, but with little or no contemporary archaeological or textual evidence to support the myth. The main reason for this huge lacuna is that Egyptologists have generally ignored one of Imhotep's most important proficiencies: his highly advanced knowledge of astronomy." P.1-2, IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN, ARCHITECT OF THE COSMOS, by Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, Ph.D. (Disinformation Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, San Francisco, CA: 2013)