The History of Mazes
Mazes are among the oldest puzzles: drawn on walls and floors, planted as hedges, printed in puzzle books.
Very old patterns
Winding patterns that lead to a centre are found on stones, coins and floors from many old cultures. Many of them have only one path with no choices; the idea of a puzzle with dead ends came later.
Hedges and puzzle books
From the 16th century on, gardens were planted with hedge mazes in which visitors could get lost. In the 19th and 20th centuries mazes on paper became a fixed part of children's magazines and puzzle books. Mathematicians describe them as graphs, and computer programs can make new ones without end.
This version
Every maze here is made by the program itself: a walk through the grid that knocks down walls until every cell can be reached. No maze is copied from a book.