Thread your way through this aMAZEing history and delve into a curious experience!?
From prehistoric times, mazes and labyrinths worldwide have served as different symbolic, ritualistic, and practical purposes. Taken as a powerful metaphor for life's journey, they can be used as tools for meditation and learning at any level, even when completed for recreation. Maze images can be enjoyed as motifs themselves, but also in their material forms—a meditation, puzzle, dance, walk, ritual, pilgrimage, or simply a day out.
Drawing upon a wealth of historical and classical literature; accounts written by explorers, archaeologists, and historians; and the output of modern and contemporary world-renowned experts and enthusiasts, social historian Dr. Julie Bounford explores the evolution of mazes through time and across continents, presenting their history in a fun and engaging format while challenging readers to solve over 100 mazes—many created exclusively for this book by illustrator and artist Trevor Bounford. Learn about:
- The earliest recorded examples, legends, and mazes in the ancient world
- Mazes used as sacred rituals and symbols that take us beyond the natural world
- Turf, stone, hedge, and garden mazes, and sites of communal rustic revels
- The modern revival, with mazes taken to forms never previously imagined
Explore how mazes can improve your mental dexterity and create mindfulness, and use the gazetteer to locate historical, replica, and interesting mazes that exist around the world today.
Following the popularity of The Curious History of the Crossword, The Curious History of Mazes presents readers with an interactive history of mazes, coupled with challenging puzzles to give readers hours of tangled and educational fun.
