Construction Adventures:
Resources to Help Explorers Discover
Ancient Egypt!

Learn to Play Senet

Senet Online (requries Shockwave Player)

Never heard of senet (or senat)? For an ancient game, it is not particularly well known. Archaeologists discovered senet boards (the one to the left was found in King Tut’s tomb), but found no rules. Consequently, the rules are, somewhat, open to debate, although historians have come up with a couple of variations created from educated guesses.

Along with ur, senet is considered to be one of the oldest board games (dating from sometime before 3500 BC) and was played from Predynastic Egypt (3500 BC) through the New Kingdom (1500-1077 BC).

  • Variation (includes a color board that can be printed)
  • Rules (different from the ones above)

Which goes to show what happens when you find very old game boards and absolutely no directions.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know…

  • Ancient Egypt for Kids. Every thing from geography and history, to deities, to scarabs and crocodiles, this site has a wealth of information and some cool side features and activites. A good place to start your adventure.
  • Ancient Egypt. While, primarily, a tourism website, you can find a lot of information, as well as puzzles and games, in the pages.
  • Ancient Egypt (The British Museum). The Brits spent a fair amount of time digging up stuff in Egypt (pyramids, mummies, senet boards, King Tut), and even more time studying it. You can learn some amazing stuff about Egypt from the British Museum…well worth the time spent navigating the site. The site also includes photographs of the artifacts found in the British Museum, as well as myths, games, and all sorts of other stuff.

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