Different Types of Mazes

Different Types of Mazes You Should Know – Our Guide

There are many different types of mazes out there – from the classic hedge maze to a unicursal maze – and they have somewhat evolved throughout history. A lot of people think that a labyrinth and a maze are exactly the same things, but they have differences that set them apart from each other.

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Labyrinth

With a labyrinth type of puzzle, you’re getting one that has more curves and winding passages involved in it. These passages develop into a unicursal path that gradually gets closer to the middle of the maze.

The directions of a labyrinth-type puzzle tend to switch directions frequently, but you shouldn’t feel as confused with these types of puzzles in comparison to mazes.

A labyrinth takes a good chunk of time to figure out how to get to the middle of it. There are many different directions that you’ll have to consider – you’ll also have to avoid each dead end – as you’re trying to find the correct path and complete the puzzle. There will also be a lot of backtracking, depending on how complex the puzzle is.

Going through a labyrinth can be an introspective experience – young men in Germany would go through one in order to be initiated into adulthood. Labyrinths date back to the 5th century in Egypt.

A historian named Herodotus has stated that he has been to an Egyptian labyrinth that contained hundreds of different rooms, some of which were underground and contained tombs of late Egyptian kings.

The main difference between a labyrinth and a maze is that in a labyrinth, the goal is to get to the center of it and then back out. With a maze game, you’re at a starting point and must navigate through a complicated path from start to finish.

Maze

In a maze, there are multiple paths that lead to dead ends, and that can result in a lot of frustration for many people. But that’s the whole point of a maze. A puzzle wouldn’t be a puzzle if it was easy to finish. You’ll find yourself getting lost many times while navigating your way out of the puzzle and trying to find the right pathway.

There are also two-dimensional maze puzzles that give you a better idea of how the maze looks from the outside. Like word search puzzles, mazes will require a lot of problem solving and foresight.

Mazes used to be seen as a good way to entertain royalty, and scientists have also been developing mazes in order to study animals since the early 1880s.

John Lubbock was a polymath that designed mazes in order to do research on certain insects and how well they could navigate. Lubbock used household products to develop the mazes and dropped ants in them to see how they did. These findings were published in a book called Ants, Bees, And Wasps.

Where Does the Word “Maze” Come From?

“Maze” is a word, stemming from the 13th century, that refers to delusion. “Labyrinth” dates back to around the 14th century, and it refers to a building that contains many different passages.

Throughout history, you can find mazes on a variety of different artifacts. If you’ve ever seen an artifact with a maze or a labyrinth on it, you’ll quickly get a sense of mystery surrounding it.

Labyrinths And Spirituality

There are a variety of real-life mazes and labyrinths scattered around the world. Historically, labyrinths have been a way for people to escape their bodies and minds in an effort to gain greater peace within themselves. An example of this is the labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral that was constructed in the 13th century.

Mazes And Labyrinths in Art

Mazes and Labyrinths have also been seen in a lot of popular culture. If you’ve ever seen The Shining or Labyrinth, you’ll notice the use of mazes in those movies. A maze is usually associated and connected to confusion. A maze is also used in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

In many British estates, hedge mazes are a popular mainstay that you’ll often see. The Hampton Maze, known to be a very famous maze, was planted way back in 1690. It’s still located there, and it has over half of a mile of paths. During the 18th century, hedge mazes started popping up more and more.

Mazes became a way for people to display their natural gardens and started becoming even more common in the 19th century. They were also used to provide privacy for estates.

If you’ve ever been to a season fair or lived in an area that has prairies, you might have noticed that there are corn or ice mazes, depending on the season. There is a corn maze in Nebraska that is almost 54,000 square feet, and attendees have to use smartphones just to navigate through the many turns involved in it.

Another large corn maze is located in Dixon, California. It consists of many acres, and it takes hours just to get through it. No matter where you go and who you talk to, mazes are a common thing. People build them, make puzzles on paper about them, and have taught their animals how to navigate through them.

What Kinds of Mazes Are There?

Throughout the years, a new maze type has occasionally popped up to delight and infuriate the masses. Here’s a look at each kind of maze game you can expect.

Logic Mazes

A logic maze is commonly referred to as a maze with rules. You might also hear logic mazes being referred to as multi-state mazes. With logic mazes, there can be a variety of different rules that range in complexity.

Some logic mazes might state that you cannot turn left at any point through the maze. The logic maze was developed by Robert Abbot, and the first one that was ever published was the Traffic Maze in Floyd’s Knob.

3D Maze

Another type of maze is the 3D maze. This type of maze consists of three dimensions.

Picture Mazes

A picture maze is a type of maze that forms a picture once the player is finished solving it. The rules of a picture maze are fairly simple, and all you do is navigate a path from the beginning of the puzzle to the end of it. As you navigate through the puzzle, you’ll be filling in the squares as you go along. These will eventually reveal a picture.

Many people find that the best way to approach picture mazes is to start from the dead end and work your way back. On very complex picture mazes, it seems to be the best way to finish them.

Francesco Segala was the person responsible for picture mazes. He was an architect that stemmed from Padua, Italy, and he’s developed many different types of puzzles mazes. Some of the designs that his picture mazes resembled are:

  • Ships
  • Dolphins
  • Crabs
  • Dogs
  • Snails
  • Horsemen

It’s not known if any of the designs that Segala created were made into hedges. Picture mazes were also known to be found in Japan before 1986.

Ball-in-a-maze

Ball-in-a-maze is another rendition of the popular maze puzzles, and they require a lot of manual dexterity. Metallic balls are included in the maze. The user has to manipulate the balls by tilting the board around so that the balls will navigate through certain paths and directions.

There are certain versions of these mazes that have magnets to make the navigating of the balls a little easier.

Dead-end Maze

With a dead-end maze, you’ll have to navigate your way through a maze where each route leads to a dead end.

Turf Mazes

A turf maze is one that appears like a very long, folded rope. It doesn’t contain any crossings, and these are commonly made from lawns. Turf mazes appear to have a very ancient type of pattern. When turf mazes are constructed from grass, they have to be cut very often so that the design layout is easy to see.

Turf mazes are commonly seen in:

  • England
  • Denmark
  • Germany
  • Scandinavia
  • Lappland
  • Iceland

A lot of turf mazes are also commonly made out of stone. A lot of them have also been found to be near churches and abbeys. They were commonly found as being ways to keep children entertained during holidays.

Loops And Trap Mazes

Loops and trap mazes have one-way doors. You could navigate yourself to a door and find yourself at a dead end soon after. This adds to the complexity because of always having to turn back toward the beginning of the maze.

No matter what type of maze you’re doing, you’ll be bound to face some frustration along the way. Mazes are a great way to pass the time without requiring any type of technology, but many mazes can also be played on smartphones and computers.

When you’re going about your mazes, a good rule of thumb is to exercise patience while you’re navigating yourself through it. A maze will require lots of backtracking, persistence, and time, depending on the complexity of the maze.

The nice thing about mazes is that they can get as complicated as you want. If you’re currently doing mazes that are too easy, you can simply advance to tougher ones.

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