It seems like Jenga has been around forever...nope just since 1986.
Jenga was created by Leslie Scott. Leslie grew up in Ghana. The game evolved from her family owning a small local sawmill. Jenga was first introduced to the world in London at Harrod’s department store.
The word Jenga comes from the Swahili word kujenga which means to build.
The iconic Jenga game is played with 54 rectangular blocks. The starting position of the blocks is a tower with each level made up of 3 blocks. Players take turns removing 1 block from a level beneath the top most finished level. The removed block is replaced on the top of the tower.
The packaging of the game is genius...the blocks are stored in tower shape and can easily be slid out of the box to create the starting tower.
During our last vacation the hotel had a Jenga game made out of 2”x4”s that were two feet long.
The Good: A new classic game!
The Bad: The 2”x4” tower hurts your bare feet when it falls!
The Dastardly: The reported highest tower built during a game of Jenga is 40 ⅔ levels high.