Imhotep Museum

The Imhotep Museum [ [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/791/eg3.htm] Museum for a demi-god] is located at the foot of the Saqqara necropolis complex, near Memphis, in Egypt and was built as part of strategic site management

The Museum was opened on April 26, 2006, and displays finds from the site, in commemoration of the ancient Egyptian architect Imhotep. Prof. Zahi Hawass said: "I felt that we should call it the Imhotep Museum in tribute to the first architect to use stone rather than perishable materials for construction on a large scale. This man was second only to the King and in the late period was worshiped as a god."

The Museum also has a hall dedicated to a man, an important Egyptologist who excavated the Djoser complex all his life: the French Egyptologist Jean-Philippe Lauer.

The Museum has five large halls in which one may admire masterpieces from Saqqara such as a Greco-Roman mummy discovered by Zahi Hawass during excavation at Teti's pyramid complex or the magnificent pair of statues of High Priest of Mut Amenemhotep and his wife, from the 19th Dynasty, found near the causeway of the Unas complex.

In the entrance hall the visitor is welcomed by a fragment of the Djoser statue in which is possible to read the name of the king and for the first time in history the name of the architect Imhotep. This find was initially in the great Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The second hall displays recent finds and trhay will be rotated in the display.

The third hall is dedicated to Imhotep's architecture, and exihibits examples of elements from the Step Pyramid Complex.

The fourth hall is called "Saqqara style" and shows vessels and statues in wood and stones.

The fifth hall is called Saqqara tomb and displays objects used in burials from the 6th Dynasty through the New Kingdom.

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