The easy way to find your way in a simple maze is to put your hand on the left (or right) hand wall and leave it there. In most garden mazes you'll get to the goal sooner or later, even if you do find yourself re-tracing your steps sometimes.

However, larger and more subtle mazes may be 'multiply connected'. This means that the goal is effectively on an island - there is a path (or more than one) in the maze that can be traced all around the goal, meeting itself again. In this case the hand on the wall technique doesn't work - you just end up circling the island.

To solve a multiply connected maze in a guaranteed logical or procedural fashion, you have no option but to mark the path you take somehow.

One way is to mark, say, the left hand side of the path you take. Each time you come to a junction, choose a path at random. If you reach a dead end, or come to a junction you've visited before, turn around and go back the way you came. As you retrace your steps (ie the path is marked on the right hand side) take any new path that you encounter.

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Comments and discussion always welcome -

David King last update 19Nov01