Thieves of Egypt is Thomas Warfield's reshaping of Forty Thieves into an open pyramid. Two decks; ten columns dealt 1-3-5-7-9-10-8-6-4-2 from left to right, every card face up, with a 49-card stock waiting behind them. The building is friendlier than the classic game: columns build down in alternating colours and a packed run moves as a unit. Two things push back. An empty column takes only a King, and the stock allows exactly one redeal. The result is a game most players can win with care, and the pyramid deal makes every game open differently. Free in your browser, no sign-up.
Goal: build all eight foundations from Ace to King by suit, using both decks.
The pyramid gives you short columns at both edges and deep ones in the middle. Play the edges first.
Thieves of Egypt was invented by Thomas Warfield, the author of Pretty Good Solitaire, as a variant of the classic Forty Thieves; the PySol collection lists it with the alternative name Upside-Down Pyramid. The deal shape is entirely its own, but the rules are borrowed from the two big families it sits between. From Rank and File and Number Ten it takes the alternating-colour build and the moving runs; from Klondike it takes the Kings-only spaces and the idea of a redeal. What it does not take from either is hidden cards: everything is face up from the first move, so the difficulty is in the digging, not in the luck of a turned card.
Rule sources agree closely. PySol's page and the BVS rules both give the 1-3-5-7-9-10-8-6-4-2 deal, alternating-colour building, moving sequences, Kings-only spaces and a single redeal. With every card face up and runs that move as a unit, it is one of the more forgiving two-deck games.
For the same building rules on a flat board, try Rank and File; for the stricter suit-by-suit original, Forty Thieves.
Almost everything but the two decks and the eight foundations. The deal is an open pyramid of ten uneven columns instead of ten columns of four; the build is down in alternating colours instead of by suit; packed runs move as a unit instead of one card at a time; an empty column takes only a King; and the stock allows one redeal where Forty Thieves allows none.
That is the deal. The ten columns hold 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 cards from left to right, which is why PySol also calls the game Upside-Down Pyramid. The short outer columns are easy to clear; the deep middle ones hold most of the buried cards.
Only a King, either on its own or at the head of a packed run. No other card may fill a space, so clearing a column is worth doing only when you have a King that needs a home.
When the stock is empty, the waste is turned over to become a new stock, keeping the order the cards were wasted in, and you go through it once more. After that second pass there is no further redeal.
Yes. Any sequence of cards in descending order with alternating colours moves as a unit, and a run headed by a King may move into an empty column.
Not every deal. Pretty Good Solitaire rates it a medium-difficulty game. Because nothing is hidden, the game detects a genuine dead end and tells you when no legal move remains.