If I had a time machine I wouldn't go back to watch the building of Khufu's
Great Pyramid, I would go back 30 years earlier during the time of Khufu's
father, Zoser, during the construction of the Step Pyramid, because then I
could meet Imhotep, Pharaoh's engineer and the first great scientific genius
we can put a name on. Nobody knows who first tamed fire.
Imhotep does not seem to have been of high birth, which makes the great
respect he enjoyed even in his own lifetime especially significant, later
generations made him a God of course. I'm sure his exploits were greatly
exaggerated but I think there must have been an individual of extraordinary
ability around this time, a lot of brilliant things were happening and they
don't look like the work of a committee to me. It's not easy to go from small
mud huts to huge stone structures in one generation, but Imhotep figured out
how to do it. The step Pyramid was the prototype, the builder of Khufu's
Great Pyramid was just following the design and construction principles that
Imhotep established.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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