How to Play Thieves of Egypt Solitaire

This two-deck game deals its tableau in a pyramid, and you build alternating-color runs there while filling eight foundation piles. Clearing cards off the top rows opens up the cards stacked beneath them.

Setup

1. Shuffle two decks and deal them in a pyramid across 10 tableau piles (1 card in the first, then 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
2. Place remaining cards in the stock, drawn one at a time to a waste pile
3. Eight foundation piles will receive cards as they appear

How to play

• Build tableau piles down by rank (one lower) with opposite colors (red on black, black on red)
• Move cards or valid sequences between tableau piles if they follow the color-alternation pattern
• Click the stock to draw one card to the waste pile
• Play the top waste card to the tableau or directly to a foundation when it fits
• Qualifying cards move automatically to the foundations once they can't build on the tableau; you can change this behavior in Settings
• Only Kings can be placed in empty tableau spaces

How to win

Objective: Move all 104 cards to eight foundation piles, built by suit from Ace to King.

All 104 cards are on the eight foundation piles. You fail when moves dry up and you've exhausted the stock.

Tips

• Clear cards off the tableau early to free the cards stacked beneath them in the pyramid—that's your main source of new plays
• Build foundation sequences as soon as Aces appear to free up tableau space
• Plan sequences before committing cards to moves; pyramid positions are rigid

Play Thieves of Egypt free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Thieves of Egypt alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the Forty Thieves family:

• Waterloo — A two-deck stock-based solitaire with minimal tableau space and relaxed building rules.
• Barricade A — A straightforward two-deck solitaire where you build foundations regardless of suit and arrange twelve tableau piles in descending order.
• Barricade B — A challenging two-deck variant of Barricade where you build the foundations in suit order instead of any-suit, and you can't play cards directly from the stock.
• Diplomat — A generous Congress variant where foundations build up by suit while tableau cards sequence down by rank in any suit, with four cards dealt to each tableau pile.
• Double Rail — A two-deck game with a compact five-pile tableau where sequences can mix suits and whole runs can be relocated together.