NAME ____________________________________________________ NUMBER __________

CLASS _______________________ Teacher ____________________ DATE _____________

Enc. Educ. ________________________________________________ SCORE ______
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(Time 00 minutes)

Free-time Activities in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians worked hard, but they made sure they left time to have fun too. They
especially enjoyed playing board games.
One of their favourite board games was ‘Mehen’. The board looked like a snake lying in a circle.
The head of the snake was in the middle of the board. Players moved their piece from the tail of
the snake to the head to win. Egyptians played this board game until around 2000 BCE and then
stopped. But experts don’t know why.
Another popular board game was ‘Senet’. People of all ages played this game. Everyone from the
king in his palace to the poor men on the street liked to play. The game dates from 3500 BCE and
is one of the first board games that people invented. The board has thirty squares one for every
month in the ancient Egyptian calendar, but no one knows how people played the game.
People found ‘Senet’ boards at quite a few ancient sites and there are
even some that people built into the walls of the ancient Pyramids.
Maybe the builders played the game on their breaks. Ancient Egyptians
put four ‘Senet’ boards in the ground with King Tutankhamen’s body
and this made some historians think that the game had something to do
with life after we die. But no one knows for sure. SENET
Even though ‘Mehen’ and ‘Senet’ are thousands of years old, there are
modern types on the Internet that you can play. So, you can do what
the ancient Egyptians did in their free time.

© Leirilivro & Express Publishing PHOTOCOPIABLE

 NAME ____________________________________________________ NUMBER __________
CLASS _______________________ Teacher ____________________ DATE _____________
Enc. Educ. ________________________________________________ SCORE ______
00
(Time 00 minutes)

Answer the questions.

1. How can you win a game of ‘Mehen’?

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2. Why did the ancient Egyptians stop playing ‘Mehen’?
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3. Which of the board games in the text is the oldest?
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4. How many months were in the Egyptian calendar?
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5. What do historians think is the reason Senet boards were near King Tut’s body?
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6. How can we play these games today?
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© Leirilivro & Express Publishing PHOTOCOPIABLE