The Royal Game Of Ur

The Royal Game of Ur, also known as Twenty Squares

This game dates back to 2600BC making it one of the oldest board games known to man at over 4500 years old and may be the predecessor to games like backgammon & Ludo. Ur was played in ancient Mesopotamia and boards have been found in the Royal Tombs of Ur, ancient burial grounds and even the great pyramids.

The Royal Game of Ur is a two player board game, the player who gets all of their pieces around the board first wins. You can play against a friend or the computer.

Players take turns to roll the dice and move their pieces around the board. Only 1 piece is allowed in any square, if you land on a square with an opponents piece then you knock it off and it goes back to the start. If you land on a square with a rosette then you can roll the dice again and have another go.

We use 4 pyramid shaped dice with a white dot painted on one corner, giving possible rolls from 0 to 4.

You will soon pick it up, and with help on we'll show you the route around the board and valid moves.

This game was played all over the world by Kings and Queens, Princess and Pharaohs as well as paupers and peasants in many different cultures, naturally the rules vary slightly from culture to culture. With this in mind we provide the option of turning off the rules so counters can be placed anywhere and at any time, obvious the computer can't play under these conditions.

Settings screens allows choice of 3 different version of the game, Royal Pyramid Ur - 7 pieces, Mummy's tomb Ur - 5 Pieces and Sarcophagus Ur - 3 pieces for that extra quick baby game.

Have fun, learn the strategy and if you ever bump into an Egyptian mummy on a dark night just whip out your phone, start up the Royal Game of Ur and challenge it to a game :-)