Games of the Ancient Egyptians

Ancient Egyptians love to play games as much as we do today. Many of the games we play today are very similar to the games that the Egyptians played. Evidence of the Egyptian games were found in tombs of the ancient pyramids built in 2600 B.C. Drawings of the Egyptians playing games along with board games themselves were found at many different burial sites. Based on the hieroglyphics on the wall, I think that they had game night a couple times a week. My family has game night about three times a month. I would love to have game night every week.

They played games for fitness and for entertainment. Like us they were very competitive. They played outdoor games like wrestling, hockey, jumping, running. An interesting fact about how they played hockey is that they used palm branches to hit the “puck," a small leather ball stuffed with papyrus. I would like to play that game because it seems like a lot of fun. Wrestling tournaments and running and jumping races were well documented with hieroglyphics. Many games were just played for fun. That is why I play games. These games were mostly board games. But over time some of the fun board games developed a religious meaning. Some of the games were even banned because it was thought that angered certain gods. If a board game that I played angered a God, I would quit playing it too. All classes of Egyptians played board games but the upper class had board games made of ivory and ebony. King Tut was buried with four different Senet boards. I don’t know why King Tut had four Senet boards buried with him. You can only play one game at a time even if you were a mummy. Maybe he was planning a mummy Senet tournament.