Girih
Fill the panel, find the star.
How to play
Drag the pieces from the tray onto the panel and place them so that no gap is left. Tap a piece to turn it 36°; a piece that fits where you drop it at only one angle turns by itself. When the panel is full, the girih stars appear. Finish with no hints and at most one take-back to earn 3 stars.
How to play Girih: a guide to the wooden panel puzzle
Girih is a wooden panel puzzle born from the geometric ornament of Islamic art. Each panel shows an empty shape and a tray of pieces below it. You drag the pieces onto the panel, turn them to the right angle and fill the panel without leaving a single gap. When the panel is complete, the lines on the pieces join up and glow, and girih stars appear. The game has 30 panels in four chapters and a Daily panel that changes every day. There is no time limit, so you can think as long as you like.
Goal
The dark inside of the panel is the combined shape of the pieces you have to place. The panel is finished when every gap is filled. Some panels have more than one correct solution; the game only checks that the panel is filled without gaps.
The game uses the five classic tiles of girih art: the large decagon, the pentagon, the thin rhombus, the long hexagon and the bowtie. All of them have the same edge length and all their angles are multiples of 36 degrees. The large decagon only sits in its own correct place; the other pieces can fit in many places, but not all of them are right.
Controls
| What do you want to do? | Touch screen | Mouse and keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Move a piece | Drag it with your finger | Click and drag |
| Turn a piece (36°) | Tap the piece once | Left click turns clockwise, right click the other way; the mouse wheel turns it too |
| Turn the piece under the cursor | - | R key |
| Take back the last placed piece | Undo button | Ctrl + Z |
When you drop a piece on the panel, the game snaps it to the nearest fitting corner. If the piece fits that spot at only one angle, it turns to that angle by itself; if several angles fit, turning it is up to you. If it doesn't fit or overlaps another piece, it goes back to the tray and the reason is shown at the top of the screen. On a phone, the dragged piece sits a little above your finger.
Helper buttons
- Undo: sends the last piece you placed back to the tray; it counts as one take-back.
- Sketch: draws the girih lines faintly over the empty panel. The first time you turn it on in a panel, it counts as one hint. Pattern panels show the lines anyway, so there is no Sketch button there.
- Hint: shows the right place of one piece with a dashed gold outline for a few seconds. When you press it, you choose: watch a short ad and keep your stars (twice per panel), or take it without an ad and it counts as a hint. In repair panels, the hint first shows one of the wrongly fitted old pieces in red.
- Restart: puts the panel back to its starting state. Your hint and take-back counts are not reset.
Stars
Stars depend on your hints and take-backs; time does not matter.
- No hints and at most 1 take-back: 3 stars
- At most 1 hint and at most 4 take-backs: 2 stars
- More than that: 1 star
Dragging a placed piece back to the tray, pressing Undo and turning a placed piece so that it no longer fits each count as one take-back. A hint taken with an ad does not count. If you replay a panel and earn more stars, the new result is saved. All 30 panels together give 90 stars.
Chapters and progress
Panels unlock in order: finishing one opens the next. There are four chapters:
- Classic panels (1-12): from the Chest lid to the Palace door. The first two panels teach dragging and turning; in this chapter one piece of each panel is fixed in place from the start.
- Master panels (13-18): no fixed piece, and every piece fits in many places, but only one is right. A wrong piece often locks the panel at the very end.
- Pattern panels (19-24): the girih lines are always visible and the piece outlines are hidden. A piece only sits where its lines match the pattern; dropping it where they don't match counts as a take-back. The tray holds 2 extra pieces you won't need.
- Repairing the old pavilion (25-30): the panel arrives with dark old pieces, and some of them fit but sit in the wrong place. Taking out a wrong piece is not a mistake; taking out a correct old piece counts as a take-back.
Daily panel, pavilion and story
The Daily panel sits at the top of the Panels screen and changes every day on Turkish time. Monday brings the easiest panel and Sunday the hardest. The number of days in a row you solve it is your streak; after solving it you see how other players did, by their number of take-backs and hints. The Daily panel does not add to your chapter stars.
On the Pavilion screen in the menu, every finished panel takes its place on the pavilion's front. The story is told in short scenes at the start of chapters with Master Hasan, Steward Ağa, who brings the palace's orders, and the hasty Journeyman Rıza; each scene is shown once and can be passed with Skip.
Strategy
Place the large decagons first: a decagon only sits in its own place, so it is the safest place to start. Then look at the narrow corners; a sharp corner is usually the place of a rhombus or a bowtie. In master panels, before placing a piece, think about what will fill the gap next to it; if it leaves a hole that no piece can fill, the place is wrong.
In pattern panels, follow the lines: the lines of every piece must run on into its neighbour through the middle of each edge. In repair panels, count the pieces in the tray; if a decagon is in the tray and its place is taken, the old piece covering that place is wrong.
Tips
- If a decagon doesn't fit, its place is wrong, not its angle: a decagon looks the same at every angle.
- If a piece fits where you drop it at only one angle, you don't need to turn it; it turns by itself.
- If a piece goes back to the tray, read the message at the top: does it not fit, does it overlap another piece, or do the lines not match?
- For 3 stars you only get 1 take-back, so think before placing a piece you are unsure about.
- Restart doesn't reset your hint and take-back counts; use it to see the panel fresh.
- If the tray is empty but the panel isn't finished, a piece is in the wrong place; pull back the one you suspect.
- A hint taken with an ad keeps your stars and can be used twice per panel.
- With a mouse, turning with the wheel is faster than clicking; right click turns the other way.
Girih: from knots to stars in geometric ornament
Girih means knot in Persian: a geometric ornament made of interlacing lines. Its patterns are built from five basic tiles shaped as a decagon, pentagon, rhombus, hexagon and bowtie, and every angle is a multiple of 36 degrees. In Anatolia, Seljuk and Ottoman craftsmen used girih on wooden doors, shutters and minbars with the kündekari technique, fitting pieces together without nails or glue.
- Name
- Persian for "knot"; geometrik geçme in Turkish
- Where it appears
- Doors, minbars, ceilings, tile panels, book covers
- Woodworking technique
- Kündekari: interlocking panels without nails or glue
- The five girih tiles
- Decagon, pentagon, rhombus, elongated hexagon, bowtie
- Basic angle
- 36 degrees and its multiples
What is girih?
Girih means "knot" in Persian. In Islamic art it names a style of geometric ornament made of interlacing straight lines that form stars with five, eight, ten or twelve points, together with the polygons between them. In Turkish these patterns are often called geometrik geçme, "geometric interlace". The lines are usually drawn as if they pass over and under one another like threads in a fabric, and the pattern can be extended endlessly in any direction.
The style was widely loved in Anatolia under the Seljuks and the Ottomans. It appears on stone portals, tile panels and ceilings, and above all on wooden doors, window shutters and minbars, the stepped pulpits of mosques.
The girih tiles
Researchers think that craftsmen may have used a set of tiles rather than drawing these complex patterns line by line. Today known as girih tiles, the set has five shapes: decagon, pentagon, rhombus, elongated hexagon and bowtie. All edges are equal, and the decorative lines cross the middle of every edge. Placed side by side, the lines join into one continuous star pattern.
The architectural pattern scroll kept in the library of the Topkapı Palace Museum, known as the Topkapı Scroll, contains drawings in which the outlines of these tiles can be seen. A study published in 2007 suggested that the girih patterns of some 15th-century buildings in Iran come very close to quasi-periodic tilings that mathematicians only described in the 20th century. That interpretation is still debated.
Girih in wood: kündekari
The best-known Anatolian technique for girih in wood is kündekari. The craftsman cuts every polygon of the pattern as a separate piece of wood and locks the pieces together with interlocking joints, using no nails or glue. As a result, the panel does not crack even when the wood swells and shrinks with humidity. Work that imitates this by carving the whole pattern into a single board is called false kündekari.
The most famous examples are wooden minbars, mosque and palace doors and cupboard doors from the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. The 12th-century minbar of the Alaeddin Mosque in Konya is counted among the oldest of them.
In the game
The pieces in the game have exactly the shapes and angles of real girih tiles, and the thin lines on them follow the girih rule of crossing each edge at its midpoint. The panel names, such as chest lid, drawer front, minbar side panel, fountain panel and palace door, come from places where this craft was really used. The pattern panels turn a method some researchers have proposed into a game: the pieces are hidden and only the lines are shown. Master Hasan, Steward Ağa, Journeyman Rıza and the two pavilions are the game's fiction, not particular historical people or buildings.
How Girih was made
Girih grew out of the tradition of geometric patterns in Seljuk and Ottoman woodwork. These patterns are built by joining five basic pieces without gaps, and stars appear between them. The game turns this idea into a puzzle: the pieces turn in 36-degree steps and every panel must be filled without leaving a gap.
The first version had 12 panels, and measurements showed a problem: in some panels every piece had only one place, so players simply turned and dragged without thinking. The panels were reworked. New panels were cut from a large girih tiling, and each was chosen by counting the placements that fit but belong to no correct solution, so the difficulty rises smoothly from panel to panel. A piece that fits at only one angle started to turn by itself, and stars now count take-backs as well as hints.
Then the game grew to four chapters and 30 panels: the master panels have no fixed piece, the pattern panels show only the lines, and repairing the old pavilion means finding and removing wrongly fitted pieces. The story of Master Hasan, Steward Ağa and Journeyman Rıza is told at the start of chapters, and finished panels take their place on a pavilion's front. The Daily panel comes from a year-long pool chosen the same way.
The visuals are drawn in code, and the sounds are original and generated in code. With every version, all panels and every daily panel are checked with a solver. Ads only appear after a panel is finished or when the player asks for one for a hint. The game can be played in 7 languages.
Frequently asked questions
What does girih mean?
Girih means "knot" in Persian. It is the name of the geometric ornament in Islamic art that builds stars and polygons from interlacing lines. In Turkish these patterns are also called geometrik geçme.
How many panels are there?
There are 30 panels in four chapters: 12 classic panels from the Chest lid to the Palace door, the Master panels, the Pattern panels and Repairing the old pavilion. On top of that there is a Daily panel that changes every day.
How do I turn a piece?
Tap or click the piece once; it turns 36 degrees each time. With a mouse, right click turns it the other way, and the wheel and the R key turn it too. If the piece fits where you drop it at only one angle, it turns by itself.
Why does a piece go back to the tray?
It means the piece doesn't fit there, overlaps another piece, or, on a pattern panel, its lines don't match the pattern. The message at the top of the screen tells you which.
How do I get 3 stars?
Finish the panel with no hints and at most 1 take-back. At most 1 hint and 4 take-backs gives 2 stars. A hint taken with an ad doesn't count; turning on the Sketch in a panel counts as one hint.
What is a take-back?
Dragging a placed piece back to the tray, pressing Undo, or turning a placed piece so that it no longer fits. On pattern panels, dropping a piece where its lines don't match also counts; in repair panels, taking out a wrong old piece does not.
What is the Daily panel?
It is the panel at the top of the Panels screen that changes every day on Turkish time. Monday is easy and Sunday is the hardest. The days you solve in a row count as a streak; it does not add to your chapter stars.
What do I do in the repair panels?
Some of the dark old pieces that Journeyman Rıza fitted in a hurry are in the wrong place. Find them, drag them to the tray to take them out and complete the panel with the right pieces. Taking out a wrong piece is not a mistake.
Who is in the story?
Master Hasan gives his apprentice a copy of the Topkapı Scroll; Steward Ağa brings the palace's orders, and Journeyman Rıza repairs the old pavilion in a hurry. The characters and events are the game's fiction.
What is kündekari?
Kündekari is the technique of cutting every piece of a geometric pattern separately and fitting them together without nails or glue. It was used on minbars, doors and cupboard doors in the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. The panels in the game are inspired by this craft.
Is Girih free?
Yes. No download or account needed; it plays right in your browser. Watching an ad for a hint is always your choice.
Will I lose my progress?
Your progress is saved automatically on this device. Sign in and it moves to your account, so you can continue on any device.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. The game opens full screen on phones; tap the X in the corner to exit. On iPhone use "Add to Home Screen" to play it like an app.
Can I play Girih offline?
Yes. A game you have opened once is stored on your phone or computer and opens without internet. Leaderboards and cloud saves need a connection.
Which languages are available?
Turkish, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Russian.
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