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What do games tell us about Ancient Egypt?

A person looking at some games.

The ancient Egyptians didn鈥檛 spend all their time working or preparing for the afterlife. They also liked to play lots of board games.

These games often tell us about the way the Egyptians followed their religion and lived their lives.

A person looking at some games.
Hounds and Jakals board game.

Board games were all played with ancient Egyptian versions of dice 肠补濒濒别诲鈥throw sticks鈥痮谤鈥knuckle bones. This was because they were all games of chance.

For the ancient Egyptians, the element of chance symbolised that their fate was in the hands of the gods.

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Watch: What Ancient Egyptian board games were there?

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What was the Mehen game?

A photo of a small ivory lion playing piece from a Mehen board gameImage source, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Image caption,
This is a close-up photograph of a lion piece from a Mehen board game. It is carved from ivory. The ancient Egyptians often made things from hippopotamus ivory because there used to be lots of hippos living by the Nile.
Mehen board game.
  • The gameboard showed a coiled snake whose body is divided into rectangular spaces. Mehen was a snake deity (god) in ancient Egyptian religion.
  • The game was played with lion or lioness shaped pieces with three to six sets and small marbles or balls.
Mehen board game.
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Gameboards

Take a look at some ancient Egyptian game pieces.

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 3, A photo of an ancient Egyptian game box with playing pieces and knuckle bones for dice, The ancient Egyptians played Aseb on one side of this box and Senet on the other side. Look closely at the picture and you can see some knuckle bones. The ancient Egyptians would use these as dice.
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Activities

Activity 1: Explore Ancient Egyptian games

Click on the market stall to learn about four Ancient Egyptian games.

Games included 鈥楽enet鈥, 鈥楬ounds and Jackals鈥 鈥楢seb鈥 and 鈥楳ehen鈥.

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Activity 2: Name the game

Solve the riddle and type the correct game name.

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Activity 3: Quiz 鈥 Ancient Egyptian games

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Activity 4: Make your own Mehen board

Download our ancient Egyptian Mehen board game and play the game yourself!

Make your own Mehen board
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Activity 5: History Explorer game

Play this game to test your knowledge and learn even more facts about Ancient Egypt.

History Explorer: Secrets through time

History Explorer: Secrets through time: KS2 History

History Explorer: Secrets through time
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Bitesize Primary games. game

Play fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art, computing and modern languages.

Bitesize Primary games
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More on Ancient Egypt

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