Total War: Pharaoh map – all playable areas
Update (September 13, 2023): We finally have a full map flyover for Total War: Pharaoh, so sit back and enjoy:
Original (June 1, 2023): It’s not difficult to establish a general idea about what the Total War: Pharaoh map might look like, since we know all the playable factions and the historical context the game is embedded in. With Egyptians, Hittites, and Canaanites being playable and the Sea Peoples looming as an endgame crisis, we should be looking at a playable area starting from Egypt’s border with Nubia in the south, which then follows the Nile until it reaches the Mediterranean.
The entire Levante with today’s Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria should be included as well, as that’s where the Canaanites dwell – sandwiched between the Egyptian and Hittite realms. The latter have their home further north in Anatolia, which should in large parts be part of the playable map as well – at the time the game is set in, the Hittites control Asia Minor almost entirely, including the western coast bordering Greece and the Aegean.
Cyprus would be a natural inclusion, being incredibly important in that time as a source of copper and very much in the geographical scope of what we just described.
That’s the theory, anyway. Here is everything that’s been confirmed about the Total War: Pharaoh map.
Total War: Pharaoh map – everything we know
Total War: Pharaoh’s Limited Edition contains a double-sided poster that presumably depicts the entire map. Important for us is the fact that an image advertising this edition of the game shows us a part of that poster with the map, giving us a look at some of the provinces of Egypt.
We can see the Western Desert, Lower Egypt, the starting letters of Upper Egypt, and the region of Kush. The Kushites were a people living in the region of Nubia south of Egypt, which is today’s Sudan. They once conquered Egypt and ruled as Pharaohs, but by the time of the game are no danger for Egypt anymore. This is clearly Total War: Pharaoh’s southwestern border of the map.
Kush is a logical place to end the playable area of the map, giving Egyptian factions something to conquer in a southern direction while keeping open the possibility of adding the Kushites as DLC.
Here’s a screenshot of a recent promo video showing a short moment from a flyover sequence. We are looking at the Nile as it makes its way towards the Mediterranean. The Nile Delta, where the mighty river splits up into many streams that eventually flow into the sea, is clearly visible. In the distance lies the Mediterranean and on the right side we can make out the Gulf of Suez. The wet area on the left side should be the Fayum, the only other piece of arable land in Egypt aside from the Nile Valley – though it was really only widely cultivated under the Macedonian Ptolemies a few hundred years later.
We can see the Nile Delta on the left on this birdview shot and the Levantine coast to the right.
Continuing along the Levantine coast, we get to what is today the border between Turkey and Syria.
Another shot of southern Egypt from a strategic view. You can see the Red Sea on the right and the Nile in the center. The Fayum region we mentioned above is pictured as well, so you can now see from where that particular shot was taken.
Another shot looking towards the Nile Delta.
Obviously, the Nile is Egypt's main geographical feature and artery of life.
You can view a campaign map flyover in Total War: Pharaoh's official gameplay reveal video, beginning at 22:05. The embedded video is timestamped to this point:
We'll update this article with any additional pieces of information about the map that become available.