Senet was one of the most popular board games of ancient Egypt and one of the earliest board games known from the ancient world. Played by two people on a rectangular board of 30 squares, Senet began as a game of strategy, racing, and chance. Over time, however, it became something much more important.
By the New Kingdom, the pieces’ journey across a Senet board had become associated with the dead’s journey through the Egyptian afterlife. Senet boards were placed in tombs, the game appeared in the Book of the Dead, and Queen Nefertari was depicted playing Senet against an invisible opponent on the wall of her tomb.
Tutankhamun apparently liked the game enough that multiple Senet game boxes were buried with him. For ancient Egyptians, Senet could be both entertainment and a symbolic journey toward eternal life.
What is Senet?
Senet is an ancient Egyptian board game for two players played on a board containing 30 squares arranged in three rows of ten.
Not to be confused with the person named “Senet” who was buried in tomb TT60 in the Valley of the Kings.
Hieroglyphic: 𓊃𓈖𓏏𓏠
Egyptian transliteration: zn.t
Coptic: ⲥⲓⲛⲉ
English: Senet
The Egyptian name is generally translated as “passing” or “the game of passing.” That name is particularly appropriate because players moved pieces past one another and eventually attempted to pass their pieces completely off the board. Later, “passing” also took on a deeper meaning as Senet became associated with successfully passing through the dangers of the afterlife.
A typical Senet set included:
- A rectangular board with 30 squares
- Two groups of playing pieces
- Usually five or seven pieces per player, depending on the period
- Throwing sticks, knucklebones, or similar objects used to determine movement
Ancient boards ranged enormously in quality. A wealthy Egyptian might own an elaborate wooden, ivory or faience game box with a drawer for the pieces. Less affluent Egyptians could simply scratch a Senet grid into a floor or other convenient surface.
That range is important because Senet does not appear to have been exclusively a royal game. It was enjoyed across Egyptian society.
What Did a Senet Board Look Like?
The classic Senet board contains 3 rows × 10 squares = 30 squares. The pieces traveled through those squares in a winding, roughly S-shaped route.
A player began along the first row, reversed direction on the second row, then reversed direction once again on the third row before attempting to move the pieces off the board.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Senet pieces traveling in this zigzag pattern from the beginning of the board toward square 30. Most squares were relatively plain, but the squares near the end of the board were different.
Here we have a Senet gaming board inscribed with the Horus name of Amenhotep III (dated from 1391-1353 BCE).
The Special Squares of Senet
The final five squares, numbers 26 through 30, were commonly marked with special symbols.
These markings changed somewhat over the game’s extraordinarily long history, but several patterns appear repeatedly. Square 26 frequently contained the Egyptian nefer sign associated with goodness, while square 27 often contained a symbol connected with water. Later boards could contain increasingly elaborate religious imagery.
In commonly used modern reconstructions of Senet, these spaces are interpreted as places such as:
Square 26: House of Beauty or Happiness
A favorable space that had to be reached before a piece could complete its journey.
Square 27: House of Water
A dangerous space. A piece landing here could be sent backward, frequently to a space identified in reconstructed rules as the House of Rebirth.
Square 28: House of Three Truths
One of the final protected spaces before leaving the board.
Square 29: House associated with Ra-Atum
Another of the final stages of the journey.
Square 30: Final House
The end of the path, sometimes associated with Horus on later religious boards.
The precise names and rules for these squares depended on the period and scholarly reconstruction. Ancient Egyptians played Senet for thousands of years, so it is unlikely that every Egyptian at every point in history followed exactly the same rules.
How Do You Play Senet?
One important fact to understand before learning how Senet works: We do not know the complete original rules of Senet.
No ancient Egyptian rulebook explaining the entire game has survived. Archaeologists have boards, playing pieces, paintings of people playing, religious texts connected with the game, and other clues, but modern Senet rules are reconstructions. Scholars including Timothy Kendall, R. C. Bell and Peter Piccione have used this evidence to reconstruct probable versions of the game. Even museums that explain how Senet was played acknowledge that some of the mechanics remain uncertain.
Still, we understand the basic concept quite well.
The Goal of Senet
Senet was essentially a race game. Each player tried to move all of their pieces along the 30-square track and eventually remove them from the board.
The first player to get all of their pieces safely off the board won. At the same time, players could interfere with their opponent’s progress.
Moving the Pieces
Senet did not originally use the familiar six-sided dice used in many modern games. Players instead used throwing sticks or knucklebones.
Throwing sticks could have two distinguishable sides. Depending on how many landed with a particular side facing up, the player received a number that determined how far a piece could move.
The British Museum notes that sets of four or more throw sticks could be used and that the combination of rounded and flat surfaces determined movement.
It introduced an element of chance, but Senet was not simply a game of luck. Players also had choices about which pieces to move and how to interfere with their opponent.
Capturing and Blocking
In modern reconstructions, landing on a square occupied by an unprotected opponent’s piece generally caused the two pieces to exchange places.
Players could also protect their pieces by positioning them together.
Groups of pieces could therefore function defensively and, under some reconstructed rules, create barriers that opposing pieces could not pass.
The result was a combination of luck + racing + blocking + positional strategy. In that respect, Senet may feel surprisingly familiar to anyone who has played modern race games.
How Old is Senet?
Senet is often described as the oldest board game in the world, though that claim needs some qualification. It is unquestionably one of humanity’s earliest known board games.
Fragmentary evidence associated with Senet has been discovered in First Dynasty contexts around 3100 BCE. Scholar Walter Crist notes ivory squares from Tomb M1 at Abu Rawash dating to the First Dynasty as probably the earliest archaeological appearance of Senet in Egypt.
That means Egyptians were playing something recognizable as Senet roughly 5,000 years ago.
Some popular sources assign even earlier dates to the game, but identifying the world’s single “oldest board game” is difficult. Other ancient Egyptian games, particularly Mehen, also have extremely early archaeological evidence. It is therefore more accurate to describe Senet as one of the world’s oldest known board games.
The Earliest Picture of Senet
One of the most important pieces of evidence comes from the tomb of Hesy-Re, a high-ranking Egyptian official of the Third Dynasty. His tomb at Saqqara contained a representation of a Senet board accompanied by game pieces and throwing sticks.
This dates to roughly the 27th century BCE, making it the earliest secure and detailed representation of Senet.
Senet continued appearing in Egyptian tomb scenes during the Old Kingdom. A Fifth Dynasty tomb belonging to the official Rashepses, for example, also includes people playing the game.
By this point, Senet was clearly well established.
Senet During the Middle and New Kingdoms
More Senet boards survive from the Middle and New Kingdoms, and the game boxes themselves became increasingly elaborate.
Some were beautifully decorated objects made for wealthy owners. Others combined two different games in a single box.
One side might contain the familiar 30-square Senet board while the opposite side contained a 20-square game that had been introduced into Egypt from the ancient Near East. A drawer inside the box could hold the gaming pieces, casting sticks and knucklebones.
This is also when something remarkable happened. Senet stopped being merely a board game. It became a model of the afterlife.
Senet and the Egyptian Afterlife
During the New Kingdom, Senet acquired increasingly strong religious significance.
To understand why, imagine the board not simply as 30 spaces but as a miniature version of the dangerous journey awaiting a person after death.
Ancient Egyptians believed that death was followed by a complicated passage through another realm. The deceased had to overcome obstacles, encounter gods and supernatural beings, avoid destruction, and ultimately achieve a transformed state of eternal existence.
That sounds remarkably similar to a game in which pieces must travel along a dangerous path, survive hazardous spaces, and finally escape the board.
Senet became a metaphor for that journey.
The Metropolitan Museum notes that the game’s obstacles came to correspond with hazards encountered during the journey into the afterlife.
The symbolism became increasingly explicit. Religious interpretations connected individual spaces with gods and stages in the deceased person’s journey.
Winning Senet could therefore represent something far greater than defeating another player. It could represent defeating death.
Senet in the Book of the Dead
Senet is even connected with one of ancient Egypt’s most famous collections of funerary texts: the Book of the Dead.
Spell 17 contains a reference to playing Senet as part of the deceased person’s ability to go forth and exist as a living ba after death.
Research published by the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago explains that the Senet ritual associated with Spell 17 was connected with the ba’s ability to move through the necropolis and between the realms of the living and the dead.
By the later New Kingdom, the symbolism became even more detailed. Senet could mirror the sun god’s nocturnal journey through the underworld and his triumphant rebirth.
The game had become a miniature cosmic drama.
Queen Nefertari Playing Senet
Perhaps the most famous ancient image of Senet comes from the magnificent tomb of Queen Nefertari, the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II.
On the wall of her tomb in the Valley of the Queens, Nefertari is shown sitting before a Senet board. But something is unusual. There is nobody sitting across from her. She appears to be playing against an invisible opponent.
The scene was not simply intended to show one of Nefertari’s favorite hobbies. In its funerary setting, the game represented the queen’s passage into the afterlife and her ability to overcome the obstacles standing between her and eternal existence.
It is one of the clearest examples of how an everyday Egyptian pastime had transformed into a religious symbol.
Senet Games Found in Tutankhamun’s Tomb
The most famous actual Senet games are associated with Tutankhamun. When Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, gaming equipment was among the thousands of objects preserved inside.
The Metropolitan Museum states that Tutankhamun was buried with no fewer than five game boxes associated with these ancient board games.
One particularly spectacular example combines a Senet board with another game on its reverse.
The Senet surface contains the standard 30 squares. The board stands on an elaborate ebony support with animal-shaped legs attached to sled-like runners. Ivory, ebony, faience, and gold were incorporated into the object, and a drawer stored the gaming pieces and casting equipment.
Tutankhamun’s Senet games demonstrate that the game could be a luxury possession worthy of a king. Their presence inside his tomb also suggests something deeper.
The young pharaoh had been provided with almost everything he might require in eternity, from furniture and clothing to food, weapons, chariots, and ritual equipment.
Senet belonged there too.
This is from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), in the Valley of the Kings, West Thebes. This Senet board is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Other Senet Boards Found in Egyptian Tombs
Tutankhamun’s games are the most famous, but archaeologists have discovered Senet equipment in many other Egyptian burials.
A Senet Board From Abydos
A New Kingdom Senet game now in the Metropolitan Museum was discovered in a tomb at Abydos.
The surviving board contains blue faience inlays, and gaming pieces were found with it. One group is spool-shaped while another is conical, allowing the pieces belonging to opposing players to be distinguished.
The burial also contained a scarab bearing the cartouche of Thutmose III.
The original wood had largely disappeared, so conservators mounted the ancient faience elements on a modern reconstruction.
A Senet Game Found Inside a Coffin at Thebes
Another gaming box, dating to approximately 1580 to 1458 BCE, was discovered at Thebes in the Asasif. Remarkably, it was found inside a coffin.
One side contained the Egyptian Senet board of 30 squares, while the other was designed for Twenty Squares. Eight original game pieces and two gaming bones survived. The box also had a drawer that could be secured with an ivory bolt.
Gaming Pieces From the Tomb of Neferkhawet
The Metropolitan Museum’s excavations of Neferkhawet’s family tomb at Thebes produced another intriguing discovery. Inside the coffin of an unidentified woman were ten gaming pieces, five conical and five spool-shaped.
They were probably used for Senet and Twenty Squares.
No recognizable game box remained, but the coffin had suffered serious damage from rot and insects. The wooden board may simply have decayed beyond recognition.
These discoveries help explain why Senet is so valuable to archaeologists. It survives not merely in royal treasures but in different forms across Egyptian burial culture.
Did Ordinary Egyptians Play Senet?
Almost certainly.
Elaborately decorated Senet boxes naturally survive more visibly in museums, particularly those associated with wealthy Egyptians. But ancient evidence suggests that the game was played much more widely.
Some Senet boards were extremely simple. Instead of owning an expensive wooden box, a person could scratch the grid into another surface.
The Metropolitan Museum specifically contrasts elaborate gaming boxes with grids scratched into floors by Egyptians who could not afford such luxurious equipment.
Senet appears to have crossed social boundaries.
- Kings played it.
- Queens played it.
- Officials played it.
- Ordinary Egyptians played it.
And apparently ancient Egyptian artists could joke about animals playing it too.
A Lion and Gazelle Playing Senet
One of the strangest surviving images associated with Senet comes from a Ramesside papyrus discovered at Deir el-Medina. The papyrus, dating to approximately 1250 to 1150 BCE, depicts a topsy-turvy world in which animals behave like humans.
Among the scenes, a lion sits across from a gazelle playing what is probably Senet. Instead of attacking the gazelle, the lion calmly plays a board game with her.
The papyrus is now in the British Museum.
Aside from being amusing, the image demonstrates something important. Senet was so familiar to Egyptians that an artist could use it as part of a visual joke and expect viewers to understand exactly what was happening.
Was Senet a Religious Game or Just Entertainment?
It was both, depending on when and where it was being played. The earliest evidence suggests Senet began primarily as a game. Over centuries, its meaning evolved.
By the New Kingdom, religious symbolism had become deeply integrated into some Senet boards and game representations. The player’s journey could represent the ba traveling through the Duat, overcoming supernatural dangers and ultimately joining the gods.
But that does not mean Egyptians suddenly stopped playing it for fun.
A board game can have symbolic importance while remaining entertaining.
Senet’s extraordinary longevity may partly come from this combination. It could be competitive enough for two living friends to enjoy and meaningful enough to take with them into eternity.
Why Don’t We Know the Original Rules of Senet?
Ancient Egyptians left behind thousands of texts explaining religion, medicine, administration, magic, mathematics, and daily life.
Unfortunately, nobody has yet discovered The Official Rules of Senet.
The game may have been so familiar that writing down the basic instructions seemed unnecessary. Modern people rarely explain the complete rules of familiar games every time they mention chess, checkers, or backgammon.
When Senet eventually disappeared from regular use, much of that shared knowledge disappeared with it.
What survives are clues:
- Senet boards
- Playing pieces
- Throwing sticks
- Knucklebones
- Tomb paintings
- Religious texts
- Images showing games in progress
- Markings on individual board squares
Researchers combine those clues to reconstruct probable rules.
Modern Senet is therefore best understood as a scholarly reconstruction of an ancient game, not a perfectly preserved rule set handed down unchanged from the pharaohs.
Why Is Senet Important?
Senet gives us something ancient monuments often can’t. It shows ancient Egyptians playing. We usually encounter ancient Egypt through pyramids, temples, mummies, tombs, and gods. These things can make ancient Egyptian civilization seem impossibly distant.
A board game changes that.
Imagine two people sitting opposite one another more than 4,000 years ago. One throws the casting sticks. The other watches the result. A piece advances. Another gets sent backward. Someone is lucky. Someone complains.
Suddenly, ancient Egypt feels considerably more human. But Senet also captures something uniquely Egyptian. The Egyptians transformed a familiar game about successfully navigating a board into a metaphor for successfully navigating death itself.
A piece moved through danger, reached the final spaces, and left the board. The deceased moved through the Duat, overcame danger, and emerged into eternal life.
Few artifacts unite ordinary life and Egyptian religion as perfectly as Senet.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Senet mean?
The name Senet is generally translated as “passing.” It may refer to pieces passing one another during gameplay and, especially in later religious interpretations, to the deceased successfully passing through the afterlife.
How many squares are on a Senet board?
A standard Senet board contains 30 squares arranged in three rows of ten.
How many people play Senet?
Senet was a game for two players.
How many pieces did each player have?
Different periods and reconstructions use different numbers, but Egyptian evidence indicates games using five or seven pieces per player.
Did Senet use dice?
Ancient Egyptians generally used casting sticks or knucklebones rather than modern six-sided dice to determine movement.
What was the goal of Senet?
The fundamental objective appears to have been to move all of your pieces along the board and successfully remove them before your opponent did.
Are the original rules of Senet known?
No. The complete ancient rules have been lost. Modern versions are scholarly reconstructions based on surviving boards, texts, images, and gaming equipment.
How old is Senet?
Evidence associated with Senet reaches back to approximately the First Dynasty around 3100 BCE, making it one of the oldest known board games in the world.
Was Senet found in Tutankhamun’s tomb?
Yes. Tutankhamun was buried with multiple gaming boxes, including elaborate examples containing Senet boards. The Metropolitan Museum reports no fewer than five game boxes in his tomb.
Did Queen Nefertari play Senet?
Nefertari is famously depicted playing Senet in her tomb in the Valley of the Queens. Because she faces no visible opponent, the scene has been interpreted in the context of the deceased queen’s journey through the afterlife.
Is Senet the oldest board game?
Senet is often described that way, but “one of the world’s oldest known board games” is more accurate. Early evidence for other Egyptian games, including Mehen, complicates attempts to identify a single first board game.
From a Board Game to Eternity
Senet survived in Egypt for thousands of years because it occupied an unusual place in Egyptian culture. It was simple enough to scratch into a floor yet important enough to be crafted from ivory and ebony for a pharaoh.
It could entertain ordinary Egyptians during life yet accompany kings and queens into their tombs. And somewhere along the way, a race between pieces became a representation of the greatest journey an ancient Egyptian believed they would ever make.
The 30 squares of the Senet board became a road through danger, death, rebirth, and ultimately eternity. More than 5,000 years after the earliest evidence for the game appeared, people are still moving pieces across those same 30 squares.
The ancient rules may have been lost. The game itself was not.
