The Stone Garden
Read the puzzle
A square walled maze of 11 by 11 squares. Number its grid lines 0 to 11 from the left (x) and from the top (y). Gates: A in the top edge between x=2 and 3; D in the left edge between y=3 and 4; B in the right edge between y=7 and 8; C in the bottom edge between x=8 and 9. The fountain fills the square between x=5-6 and y=5-6. Among the inner walls, one unbroken wall runs from the bottom edge at (1,11) through (1,7), (3,7), (3,8), (8,8), (8,7), (5,7), (5,5), (6,5), (6,6), (9,6), (9,8), (10,8) to the bottom edge at (10,11). Which gate leads to the fountain?
Which gate leads to the fountain?
GATE C
Every other gate is sealed off by a stone wall.
How to solve it
Work backwards. The fountain sits inside a small walled nook with only one opening, so start there and trace outward. A path from the goal has fewer branches than paths from the four gates, which saves time.
As you trace, mark each dead end and seal it off in your head. When a corridor ends against a stone wall, every branch that only leads into it can be ignored too.
Then test the gates one at a time from the outside. The corridors from gates A, D and B wind a long way and even join up with one another, but every branch of that network is closed off by a stone wall before it reaches the fountain's nook. Only the corridor from gate C, in the bottom wall, links up with the opening of the nook, so the answer is gate C.
The usual mistake is picking the gate that looks closest to the fountain in a straight line. Distance on the page means nothing in a maze; only connected corridors count. A quick check is to trace your final route with a finger without lifting it or crossing a wall.
Learn the method: How to Solve a Maze: Five Methods for Maze Puzzles
