History
Picture Mazes were first pioneered by Francesco Segala, a 15th century architect from Padua, Italy. He created puzzle maze designs, mainly in figurative forms. His designs included ships, dolphins, crabs, dogs, snails, horsemen and human figures. It is doubtful whether any of his designs were actually constructed in hedges. (Further information and illustration in the book "Secrets of the Maze" by Adrian Fisher, page 35).
In 1975, the English maze designer Randoll Coate began his life's work of creating numerous "symbolic" mazes, which combined a distinctive outer image with further internal symbols and images. His earliest works, built as hedge mazes in the landscape, included "Imprint" (a gigantic footprint) in a private garden in Oxfordhsire, England in 1975; "Creation" (egg-shaped, containing a Minotaur, and - alternatively but superimposed - the Garden of Eden story) at Varmlands Saby, Varmlands, Sweden, in 1977; and "Pyramid" at the Chateau de Beloeil, Belgium, in 1979. Randoll Coate went on to create many dozens of further Symbolic Mazes, 15 in conjunction with fellow Englishman Adrian Fisher.
Pictures mazes were also created in Japan sometime before 1986. Since then manually created picture mazes became popular in Japanese puzzle magazines published by Gakken, Nikoli Nikoli, Sun and other Japanese publishers.
The world's first cornfield maize maze was a Picture Maze, portraying a Stegosaurus (it being the year that the film Jurassic Park was premiered). This maze was created in 1993 at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, USA. It was the first of six cornfield maize mazes, each designed by Adrian Fisher, that have set Guinness World Records for progressively larger maize mazes, each one being a Picture Maze.
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