Ancient Egyptians played a game that is similar to our present-day hockey. Drawings on tombs at Beni Hassan in Menia Governorate show players holding bats made of long palm-tree branches, with a bent end similar to that of the hockey bat. The hockey ball was made of compressed papyrus fibers covered with two pieces of leather in the shape of a semicircle. The ball was dyed in two or more colors.

This primitive "hockey" game is still practiced in the Egyptian countryside.