The 5 Hardest Mazes on this Website - Part 1

I have made a few thousand mazes for this website, although only half of them remain because I got rid of the least popular ones. What is left are the mazes people seem to search for and download the most. If you stop by on Mondays you will see the new maze of the week which a more artful maze (usually) than the daily mazes I was making for my first few years tending the site. I think the extra days of design means a better maze.

Today I want to take you through the 5 Hardest Mazes on this site. All of these come from the earlier version of the site where daily mazes were the norm. By the end of this year I expect to have a Part 2 with complicated picture mazes, but for now here are the big 5:

#5 and #4 Playing Card Mazes

Specifically the King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts playing cards. As of this writing each is featured on the home page, neither has a downloadable solution available, and both feature long dead ends. What do I mean by long dead ends ? Well I did not make the incorrect pathways obvious quickly for the solver. I also made multiple branches off of wrong pathways, so you might make a wrong turn, go back to the last intersection and go the other way just to realize later that is also the wrong pathway. Because of the level of detail each should be printed on large size paper to solve !!

King of Diamonds Maze

Queen of Hearts Maze

#3 Slide Arrow Maze(s)

The thing about a slide arrow maze is that if you make a large one with only one correct solution it can become impossible to solve without “backward solving”. In a slide arrow maze you can move to any other arrow the arrow you are on is pointing to (but no jumping gaps). So the number of possibilities gets large quickly and your chances of making the x# of moves in a row correctly are near zero. Any slide arrow maze would work here but I picked one where there are 13 possible second moves.

#2 Empire State Building Maze (at night)

First I want to mention that I made this in Microsoft Paint a pixel at a time before I discovered how to make digital mazes much more easily. It took months. The maze is based on a scale model I found online. Although it does not say so, there are 2 ways to solve the maze. From the start at the base to the top. Or go all the way up and then back down to the start. The maze has 2 pathways up/down. This is also my largest maze at 3 feet wide and 9.5 feet tall in full resolution. I did not make a solution file. The sheer size of this makes it difficult in addition to the fact it was an early maze of mine before I understood how to design an enjoyable maze soultion.

#1 Mega Arrow Maze

While this maze may or may not be the Largest Arrow Maze in the World, it is definitely difficult to solve. The thing that I like about Arrow mazes is that there are no dead ends, only incorrect loops that you can get caught in. Of course, that is also what makes them maddening when you choose the wrong pathway.

It has it’s own section on the site. And starting Tuesday I will be giving daily hints (5 in total) to help you solve it. Go there to get the directions on how to solve an arrow maze and the mazes download. Good Luck ! You will probably need it !

Hey, did you notice this is only Part 1 ? Well there are future collections of hard mazes coming. If you want to be notified when new collections of hard mazes are made send me your info below !

Maze of the Week #23 - Wrigley Field Sign Maze

Many of the mazes I have featured this year have showcased signs and buildings that most people probably weren’t that familiar with. But this week, for my 23rd maze I am featuring a maze of the iconic Wrigley Field Sign. The maze is a standard construction and was done in full color. There is only 1 version.

Some information about Wrigley Field

It is not surprising that Wrigley Field is a US National Historic Landmark, but it is surprising that it was only added in September of 2020. Since opening in 1914 it has primarily been the home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, however it has housed 3 different NFL teams since it’s opening…the Bears…and well you’ll need to guess the other 2 ! Here is a video with a quick view of the sign:

The maze:

Wrigley Field Sign Maze

I hope you enjoy the maze. Free Wrigley Field Sign Maze download is available on it’s long term webpage.

Coming next week:

A sign maze of a local Ice Cream shop !

Maze of the Week #22 - Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch Maze

This week I am featuring a maze of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch located in Hartford, Connecticut to celebrate Memorial Day in the US. It becomes maze of the week #22 after a last minute switch with a lighthouse maze (now maze #37). There are many memorials (over 20) named this, or similar around the United States. This particular memorial celebrates those Hartford citizens that served in the US Civil War. The Memorial Arch was dedicated on September 17, 1886 and was designed by a local architect named George Keller.

If you want to learn more about the memorial arch, read the Wikipedia page , or just check out this video:

Here is a photo of the memorial:

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch - Connecticut State Library flickr

The maze: Finished? You decide. I can’t seem to find a clear picture of the battle scene that is banded above the arch. I attempted a few versions with it and none came out to my standards. I may add it in the future (and change the maze) if I find a good picture to work off of. I went with black and white. The brocks make for a good gridded maze construction.

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch Maze

I hope you enjoy the maze. Downloads are available on the homepage.

Coming next week:

An iconic sign maze from the world of sports !

Also interesting:

Maze Construction - 5 Maze Design Decisions Make All the Difference

How to Make a 7 Circuit Caerdroia Labyrinth

In this post I will show you how to draw a 7 circuit Caerdroia Labyrinth. I first became aware of this type of labyrinth, a variation of the Cretan labyrinth, when I saw it in the film, The Night House, which has a maze theme weaved into the storyline. This type of labyrinth is Welsh and they were used for gatherings of singing and dancing. To learn more about them check out Wikipedia.

How to Draw a 7 Circuit Caerdroia Labyrinth

Step 1 Draw the seed pattern

I came up with 2 possible seed patterns for this. The first is based on the classical 7 seed labyrinth and adjusted for the unique shape of this labyrinth. You can see this below in black overlaid onto the complete labyrinth in red. It uses a center cross (in this case offset), 4 L’s and 4 dots just like that seed uses.

The step by step instructions will use this seed, however there is another seed option I will review below.

Step 1 - Draw the seed pattern

Step 2 Note the Connection points

All seeds become labyrinths by connecting one point to another around the entire shape. For a 7 circuit you will need to make 8 connections as labeled below.

Step 2 Note the connections

Step 3 Note the location of the peaks and shape changes

In the northern part of the labyrinth, you have all circular pathways, and all of them have a peak that is centered between the first connection points (also centered above the center goal).

In the southern part of the labyrinth you have a square labyrinth. This portion of the labyrinth fills bottom half and a half step above the seed (this is an aesthetic choice by me - you may also use the seed as the point of shape change if you prefer)

Step 3 Location and shape changes

Step 4 Draw and connect the pathways to create the labyrinth

After all the explanation above, connect the same numbered pathways to create the labyrinth. Connections 1-5 require (mostly) the drawing of semi-circles, while 6-8 require pathway extensions before drawing the semicircles.

Connect the pathways in order from left to right.

That completes the labyrinth, BUT let’s look at the other seed I mentioned above.

ALTERNATIVE Step 1 Draw the seed pattern

To simplify the connection drawing this seed requires only the drawing of semicircles, but a much larger seed which looks more like a very wide tree. There are still 8 connections to make, but they are more uniform. Just make sure you align all of their transition points from square shaped to circular shaped.

All other step are basically the same, with just the drawing of your walls changing since you did more upfront work !

OPTIONAL STEP 5 Make any Aesthetic Changes

You have options for the wall.to pathway ratio. Below I made them equal. The display of corners ( I chose soft below vs. sharp corners), and how the ends of lines will look (I chose rounded vs squared).

That concludes our instructions. Good luck in making your own design !

Additional posts you might like:

Maze Construction - 5 Maze Design Decisions Make All the Difference

The 12 best maze/labyrinth movies of all time