Games from Piet Hein

Kalaha

Piet Hein's beautiful kalaha game. Here you can read his game description:

"7,000 years ago, Kalaha was played in Asia and Africa. The name Kalaha is derived from South Africa's Kalahari Desert, where natives played in depressions in the sand - such depressions can also be found in a huge boulder in the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo, in the base of the columns of the Egyptian Temple of Amun in Karnak, in the steps of the Theseum in Athens and in the rocky ledges along the caravan routes of the ancient world. Kalaha was played with stones or diamonds, even with beautiful slave women as stakes. That's history: but today, 7,000 years later, Kalaha is just as exciting - with or without stakes. The risk of winning a slave girl has shrunk, but the risk of becoming a slave is imminent!"