The Art Of The Maze

Photography by Georg Gerster

From Theseus and the Minotaur to the myths of Amazon Indians, mazes and labyrinths appear in the legends of the world's greatest civilisations and recur as a motif throughout history. Each culture has developed the maze for its own purposes and in many different media. There are Roman mosaic labyrinths, medieval Christian pavement mazes, stone labyrinths on remote islands as well as the more familiar hedge mazes. This inspiring book surveys the mystery of the maze and explores its many different forms with examples from Hampton Court, Leeds Castle and Blenheim Palace in Britain to the USA, Sweden, Italy, Australia and Japan. Spectacular aerial photographs revel the secrets of selected mazes while the author explains and discusses methods of maze design, the psychology of mazes, their mathematical evolution and how to go about solving them.