A maze is a puzzle of branching paths and dead ends, and the goal is to find the one way through from the entrance to the exit.

Why a critter on its way home?

A maze on paper asks you to draw a line with a pencil. Here a garden critter walks that line for you. Pick a bunny, a hedgehog, a snail, a bee or a mouse, and help it reach its food at the bottom of the hedges. Your finger draws the line, and the line stays inside the paths, so a wobbly hand never cuts through a hedge.

Sizes run from a 5×5 maze a small child finishes in seconds to a 30×30 Great Hedge that makes an adult stop and think. Every maze is a perfect maze, with exactly one route between any two squares, so the shortest way can be measured and the stars come from it. Any maze prints in black and white, with the answer on page 2 if you want it.

A short history of mazes and labyrinths

The oldest maze story comes from Greek myth. Daedalus built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete to hold the Minotaur, half man and half bull. Whether a real building stood behind the story is not known. The archaeologist Arthur Evans thought the many passages of the palace at Knossos might be the Labyrinth, but later scholars treat that idea with caution, and no structure like it has been found. What is certain is that Knossos put a labyrinth pattern on its coins more than 2,000 years ago.

In everyday English the two words mean much the same thing. Many people who study them draw a line, though. A labyrinth in the strict sense is unicursal: one path with no choices, winding in to the centre. A maze is multicursal: the path splits, and most branches end in dead ends. The pattern on those Cretan coins is the single-path kind. The game on this page is a true maze.

Puzzle mazes of tall hedges became a garden feature in Europe from the Renaissance on. The best known is at Hampton Court Palace in south-west London, planted for King William III and designed by George London and Henry Wise. Sources give dates from about 1690 to 1700. It is the oldest surviving hedge maze in the United Kingdom.

How to play

1. Pick a size, from Seedling (5×5) to Great Hedge (30×30). Each has six mazes, plus 🎲 Endless.
2. Drag from your critter along the paths to the food at the bottom.
3. To go back, drag back along your line or tap an earlier spot on it.
4. Arrow keys or WASD move one square. Shift, or a swipe, runs to the next fork.
5. Every step counts, going back too. Near the shortest way earns ★★★, up to about twice as far ★★, any way home ★.
6. Show me the way lights up the next few steps, and that maze then earns ★★ at most.
7. Print this maze makes a clean A4 or Letter sheet, with the answer on page 2 if you tick the box.

Tips

Work backwards. Start at the food and follow the path up with your eyes for a little way. Sometimes the right turn is easier to spot from that end.

Look before you move. Steps cost stars and looking is free. Follow a branch with your eyes before the critter walks into it.

Keep one hand on the hedge. In a maze with no loops, like every maze here, following one wall all the way round always gets you out. It is slow, so it will not win ★★★, but it never fails.

Questions

Can I print these mazes for free?

Yes. Open any maze and tap Print this maze. You get black lines on white that fill an A4 or Letter page, with a space for a name. Tick the box to add the answer on a second page.

Which size is right for a young child?

Start with Seedling, 5×5. These mazes have only one or two choices. Sprout, 8×8, is a good next step. Each size is bigger and branches more, so move up when the stars come easily.

Does every maze have a way out?

Always. Each maze is built so that every square connects to every other square by exactly one route. The game finds the shortest way with a search before you start, and that number sets the stars.