Mahjong Solitaire › All layouts › Ziggurat Mahjong

Ziggurat Mahjong

Ziggurat Mahjong is a stepped pyramid with a flat top, like the temple towers of ancient Mesopotamia. Five terraces rise from the edge to a platform five tiles high.

It is wider and lower than our Pyramid layout, and only five rows deep. Each terrace is a ring around the one above, so you peel it from the top and the edges at the same time.

How to play

The rules are the same on every layout. Click two free tiles with the same face to remove them. A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and its left or right side is open. Any flower matches any flower, and any season matches any season. Clear all 72 pairs to win. The how to play guide has pictures.

How the Ziggurat layout is built

The outer terrace is one tile high, the next two, and so on up to the platform at the top, which is four tiles wide and five high.

Tips for Ziggurat Mahjong

• Take the platform first. It is the highest point and covers the middle of every row.
• Each row is twelve tiles long. Work every row from both ends.
• The outer terrace is one tile high and stays free at its ends. Keep those tiles for partners late in the game.

Ziggurat layout at a glance

Difficulty

Medium

Tiles

144 (72 pairs)

Layers

5

Board size

12 tiles wide, 5 rows deep

Free at the start

30 tiles

Cleared in our tests

About 35%

The Ziggurat layout stacks its 144 tiles in five layers: 60 on the table, 50 on layer 2, 24 on layer 3, 6 on layer 4, 4 on top.

How we rate difficulty. We had the computer play 200 games on each layout, picking moves the same way our Hint button does. On Ziggurat it cleared the board without a shuffle in about 35% of games. That is harder than the classic Turtle, which comes in at about 50%. People who plan ahead do better than that, but the order of the layouts stays much the same. The full list is on the all layouts page.

More medium layouts and favourites

Every layout uses the same 144 tiles and the same rules. The shape is what changes, and the shape decides how hard the game is.

Turtle MahjongClassic The classic 144-tile board. Five layers, a long tail at each end. Pyramid MahjongMedium Four tiers stacked into a solid block. Peel it from the edges. Bridge MahjongMedium A long double-deck span between four towers. Castle MahjongMedium Outer walls, corner towers and a keep in the middle. Crab MahjongMedium A domed shell with claws reaching out at each corner. Fish MahjongMedium A rounded body with a raised middle and a split tail.

See all 24 layouts, sorted by difficulty

Questions people ask

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