Chartes Maze

Chartres Cathedral was built in France in 1235 AD. In the nave is the "Chemin de Jerusalem" (Road of Jerusalem), a pavement maze with a completely different pattern to the Cretan maze or the Roman mosaics.

Chartes Maze is an improvement over the Cretan maze, which involves walking round nearly the whole circle each time before doubling back. The Chartres maze is more fun to walk, since you move from one quarter to the next, and then back to a previous quartrer, while also getting closer and further from the centre.

You start on red, which turns to orange, then yellow, and so on through the rainbow. You can see that you start by wiggling into the centre of the maze, then wind your way out, one level at a time, in "H" shapes. Finally, at the outer edge, you wiggle your back to the centre.

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