Senet is the oldest board game in the world — played along the Nile more than 5,000 years ago, and carried by pharaohs into the afterlife. Our handmade Senet sets bring that ancient game to your table, crafted in Egypt the traditional way: thirty squares in three rows of ten, casting sticks thrown in place of dice, and pieces that race the journey of the soul across the board. Easy to learn and quick to play, each set is as much a piece of history to display as a game to enjoy. Choose a classic wooden board or a premium hand-inlaid set — every one a playable treasure from the land of the pharaohs.
The Game They Took to the Afterlife
Long before chess, before backgammon, before any game you know by name, there was Senet. On the banks of the Nile more than five thousand years ago, Egyptians of every rank — farmers and priests, queens and pharaohs — knelt over a board of thirty squares and threw their casting sticks to the will of the gods.
It was no idle pastime. Nefertari, beloved queen of Ramesses the Great, was painted playing Senet on the wall of her tomb. Tutankhamun loved the game so dearly that four Senet boards were laid beside him to carry into eternity. Kings and commoners alike believed it was a game worth keeping close, even in death.
Because Senet was more than a race. The Egyptians saw in its thirty squares a map of the soul’s perilous journey through the Duat — the underworld. To play was to rehearse your own passage to the afterlife, each throw a step past the gods and hazards that stood between you and eternal life. In the Book of the Dead, the deceased sits down to a game of Senet against an unseen opponent, with the soul itself as the prize.
When you set out the pieces and cast the sticks, you join a line of players that reaches back to the age of the pyramids. Every set we offer is made in Egypt, by hand, the way it always has been — so the game that once entertained pharaohs can find its place on your table, too.
Senet is the oldest board game in the world — played along the Nile more than 5,000 years ago, and carried by pharaohs into the afterlife. Our handmade Senet sets bring that ancient game to your table, crafted in Egypt the traditional way: thirty squares in three rows of ten, casting sticks thrown in place of dice, and pieces that race the journey of the soul across the board. Easy to learn and quick to play, each set is as much a piece of history to display as a game to enjoy. Choose a classic wooden board or a premium hand-inlaid set — every one a playable treasure from the land of the pharaohs.
The Game They Took to the Afterlife
Long before chess, before backgammon, before any game you know by name, there was Senet. On the banks of the Nile more than five thousand years ago, Egyptians of every rank — farmers and priests, queens and pharaohs — knelt over a board of thirty squares and threw their casting sticks to the will of the gods.
It was no idle pastime. Nefertari, beloved queen of Ramesses the Great, was painted playing Senet on the wall of her tomb. Tutankhamun loved the game so dearly that four Senet boards were laid beside him to carry into eternity. Kings and commoners alike believed it was a game worth keeping close, even in death.
Because Senet was more than a race. The Egyptians saw in its thirty squares a map of the soul’s perilous journey through the Duat — the underworld. To play was to rehearse your own passage to the afterlife, each throw a step past the gods and hazards that stood between you and eternal life. In the Book of the Dead, the deceased sits down to a game of Senet against an unseen opponent, with the soul itself as the prize.
When you set out the pieces and cast the sticks, you join a line of players that reaches back to the age of the pyramids. Every set we offer is made in Egypt, by hand, the way it always has been — so the game that once entertained pharaohs can find its place on your table, too.