The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, defines a Maze as:

• an intricate, usually confusing network of interconnecting pathways, as in a garden; a labyrinth
• a physical situation in which it is easy to get lost
• a graphic puzzle, the solution of which is an uninterrupted path through an intricate pattern of line segments from a starting point to a goal
• something made up of many confused or conflicting elements; a tangle

Most commonly, mazes are thought of as the two-dimensional mazes one solved as a child, such as the one below.

(The American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition)

Yet, the term mazes encompasses a greater genre than the one shown above. Mazes have been in existence since ancient Egypt, when Amenembet III built a funerary temple consisting of 3000 chambers. They have progressed from ancient times, with King Minos' Labyrinth and the Minotaur, to the Chinese Puzzle, to completely three-dimensional mazes in labyrinths. In fact, one can trace the art, computer games, and amusement parks. In addition, mazes are used in psychology research, and algorithms for solving mazes are used to solve many day-to-day problems.

To learn more in-depth information about mazes, click on a topic below.