House of mirrors

A mirror maze is a special kind of a maze.

Unlike built from simple wooden walls mazes that have a the hedge mazes similar route structure, is based in the mirror maze misleading the visitor almost exclusively on factitious, "virtual" way escapes. The floor plan of this ever present in confined spaces equipment is relatively simple, its base rather low. Large mirror fooled by clever arrangement before endless corridors and at the same barriers is to prevent a simple stepping through the maze. The mirrors are usually at an angle of sixty degrees ( or a multiple ) to each other and often form a basic grid of equilateral triangles. Columns, indicated vaulted ceilings and lights which appear multiplied like a kaleidoscope, increase the illusion of a vast, labyrinthine building.

Mirror mazes came on in the 19th century. Prerequisite for its construction was to develop a technique that made ​​it possible to build large-scale, flat mirrors in any quantity. However, although Leonardo da Vinci had proposed an octagonal, made ​​of man-sized mirrors room, which would have the standing offer is an infinite reflection of oneself in all directions, a realization failed in the absence of sufficiently precise mirror of sufficient size.

The first patent for a mirror maze announced a native of Berlin, Gustav Casten 1888 in France. After his blueprint, the first mirror maze was built in 1889 in Constantinople Opel Sultan Palace. 1893 was followed by a plant in Chicago, which was constructed according to the same design principle. The Petrin maze in Prague has a different, simpler plan. It was built in 1891 and still exists today.

Mirror mazes

• Petrin Mirror Maze, Czech Republic ( 1891)
• Glacier Garden Lucerne, Switzerland (1896 )
• King Arthur 's Mirror Maze, Longleat House, UK ( 1998)
• Hamburg Dungeon, Germany (2004)