Senet is one of the oldest known board games, played in ancient Egypt for over 3,000 years and found in the tombs of pharaohs including Tutankhamun. It was a race game with spiritual meaning: the journey of a piece across the board mirrored the soul's passage through the afterlife toward the realm of the gods.
This version recreates the classic 30-square board laid out in three rows of ten. Instead of dice you throw four casting sticks, each landing light or dark side up, producing a value from 1 to 5. You command 5 pieces against the computer and must navigate the special houses: the House of Second Life (15) and the Beautiful House (26) are safe havens, the Waters of Chaos (27) drown a piece and send it back to square 15, the House of Three Truths (28) freezes a piece for three turns, and Re-Atum (29) costs one turn before a piece can leave the board.
Senet is arguably the oldest board game in the world, with boards and hieroglyphic depictions from Egypt dating back to around 3100 BC. It stayed popular for three thousand years: paintings show Queen Nefertari playing it, and four complete sets were buried with Tutankhamun so the young pharaoh could keep playing in the afterlife.
For later Egyptians the game itself became religious: the thirty squares were seen as the soul's journey through the underworld, with the final squares representing judgement and rebirth — which is why square 27, the Waters of Chaos, still sends your piece tumbling backwards here. The original rules were lost, so modern play uses reconstructions by historians such as R.C. Bell and Timothy Kendall, based on surviving boards and texts.
Be the first to move all 5 of your pieces along the 30-square track and bear them off past the final square.
Press Throw Sticks to cast the four sticks. Your legal pieces are ringed in gold and their target squares glow green — tap or click a highlighted piece to move it that many squares.
There is no point score: you win by getting all five of your pieces home before the AI does. Your best result is the number of pieces you bear off the board.
A throw of 1, 4 or 5 grants an extra turn, so chain them when you can. Land two pieces on one square to form a blockade the opponent can't pass, and land on a single enemy piece to swap places and knock it backward. Avoid square 27 (the Waters) — it sends your piece all the way back to square 15.
What is Senet?
Senet is an ancient Egyptian race game, roughly 5,000 years old and often called the oldest board game in the world. Two players race five pieces along a winding track of 30 squares.
How do the throwing sticks work?
Four flat sticks are thrown instead of dice, and the faces showing determine a move of 1 to 5 squares. Throws of 1, 4 or 5 also grant an extra turn, so lucky streaks can chain together.
Do we know the real rules of Senet?
Not with certainty — the original rules were never written down and were lost after the game died out. Modern versions, including this one, use reconstructions by historians based on surviving boards, paintings and texts.
More classic games: Royal Game of Ur, Backgammon, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Game of the Goose, and all 100 free games.