The magnesium-rich intermetallic phases RE 3 RuMg 7 (RE = Y, Nd, Dy, Ho) have been synthesized from the elements in sealed niobium ampoules and subsequently characterized by powder X-ray diffraction. The structure of the dysprosium compound was refined on the basis of single-crystal X-ray diffractometer data: Ti 6 Sn 5 type, P6 3 /mmc, a = 1019.1(2), c = 606.76(9) pm, wR2 = 0.0159, 439 F 2 values, 19 variables. The Mg3 site shows a small degree of Mg3/Dy mixing, leading to the composition Dy 3.03 RuMg 6.97 for the investigated crystal. The striking structural motifs in the Dy 3 RuMg 7 structure are rows of face-sharing Ru@Dy 6 octahedra and corner-sharing Mg2@Mg 8 Dy 4 icosahedra. The rows of octahedra form a hexagonal rod-packing, and each rod is enrolled by six rows of the condensed icosahedra. Temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements of Dy 3 RuMg 7 show Curie-Weiss behavior with an experimental magnetic moment of 10.66(1) µ B per Dy atom. Antiferromagnetic ordering is detected at T N = 27.5(5) K. The 5 K isotherm shows a metamagnetic transition at a critical field of H C = 40 kOe.