A picture maze is a maze

Maze

A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...

 puzzle that forms a picture when solved.

Rules

Picture mazes require no special rules or learning and rules are very simple:

• Draw a path from the entrance to exit of the puzzle, avoiding the dead ends
• Fill the squares along the path to reveal the hidden picture

It is interesting to note that because of two rules, it is far simpler to reverse the process to solve this puzzle. Starting at a dead end, the path is filled until it reaches an intersection with three or more paths connecting to it. This process is repeated until all dead end paths are filled, often showing the shortest path. On larger pieces, this is the only way to solve as there are too many possible, but incorrect paths and chance of finding the correct path based on intuition, logic or simple luck is almost nonexistent.

History

Picture Mazes were first pioneered by Francesco Segala, a 15th century architect from Padua, Italy. He created puzzle maze designs, mainly in figurative forms. His designs included ships, dolphins, crabs, dogs, snails, horsemen and human figures. It is doubtful whether any of his designs were actually constructed in hedges. (Further information and illustration in the book "Secrets of the Maze" by Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher is internationally recognised as one of the world's leading maze designers. His mazes can be found in all corners of the globe....

, page 35).

In 1975, the English maze designer Randoll Coate

Randoll Coate

Gilbert Randoll Coate was a British diplomat, maze designer and "labyrinthologist".-Early life:The son of Charles Philip Coate, an expatriate businessman, Randoll Coate was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. After studying at the Collège de Lausanne he won a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford,...

 began his life's work of creating numerous "symbolic" mazes, which combined a distinctive outer image with further internal symbols and images. His earliest works, built as hedge mazes in the landscape, included "Imprint" (a gigantic footprint) in a private garden in Oxfordhsire, England in 1975; "Creation" (egg-shaped, containing a Minotaur, and - alternatively but superimposed - the Garden of Eden story) at Varmlands Saby, Varmlands, Sweden, in 1977; and "Pyramid" at the Chateau de Beloeil, Belgium, in 1979. Randoll Coate went on to create many dozens of further Symbolic Mazes, 15 in conjunction with fellow Englishman Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher is internationally recognised as one of the world's leading maze designers. His mazes can be found in all corners of the globe....

.

Pictures mazes were also created in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 sometime before 1986. Since then manually created picture mazes became popular in Japanese puzzle magazines published by Gakken, Nikoli Nikoli, Sun and other Japanese publishers.

The world's first cornfield maize maze was a Picture Maze, portraying a Stegosaurus (it being the year that the film Jurassic Park was premiered). This maze was created in 1993 at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, USA. It was the first of six cornfield maize mazes, each designed by Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher is internationally recognised as one of the world's leading maze designers. His mazes can be found in all corners of the globe....

, that have set Guinness World Records for progressively larger maize mazes, each one being a Picture Maze.

Computer algorithm picture mazes

Using computer algorithms picture mazes can be created at different difficulty levels by controlling the length and density of the false paths. There are picture mazes in various sizes, from small mazes of 25x25 and up to colossal poster mazes of 200x200.

See also

• Maze
  Maze
  A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
  
  
• Maze generation algorithm
  Maze generation algorithm
  Maze generation algorithms are automated methods for the creation of mazes.- Graph theory based methods :A maze can be generated by starting with a predetermined arrangement of cells with wall sites between them...
  
  
• List of maze video games