AUCian’s aMAZEing hidden talent uncovered

Talents hidden within a number of AUCians sometimes go unnoticed or are never properly nurtured unless artists and authors follow a laby­rinthine route from anonymity to fame. This was almost the case with Ihab Adham, a construction management sophomore, who took his hobby of drawing mazes to a whole new level.

Adham started drawing his own mazes at the age of 14, after remaining virtually unchallenged by the simple and easy mazes in magazines and comic books.

He started out by drawing them during his classes in school, and now he draws them whenever he’s thinking about something as a way of keeping himself busy. One of his mazes is even embedded in the cover of his physics text book.

“There are barely any mazes present in any magazines or newspapers anymore, so because I couldn’t try to solve any, I decided to draw them instead,” Adham said.

Taking him a maximum of four days to finish one maze, Adham’s mazes provide the ultimate chal­lenge that isn’t available in almost any publication.

Adham recognizes that some talents can’t be showcases about in a talent show or on a stage. Many students who love to write stories or poetry, or like to draw mazes or portraits or are into pho­tography, may find that the best way to draw atten­tion to their work is to feature them in a publication.

The drawing of mazes may seem to be an odd hobby, but they have historical relevance.

The first physical maze was actually present in Egypt, and known as the Egyptian Labyrinth. Greek traveler and philosopher Herodotus thought it was so phenomenal that he believed its beauty and complexity surpassed that of the Pyramids.

“I found it greater than words could tell, for although the temple at Ephesus and that at Samos are celebrated works, yet all the works and buildings of the Greeks put together would certainly be infe­rior to this labyrinth as regards labor and expense,” Herodotus had said.

Other mazes around the world were also beau­tiful and documented in history such as the Italian Labyrinth and the Cretan Labyrinth. There are still mazes present today around the globe and open for tourists in India, Dubai, Japan, Austria, Germany and many more countries.

Although mazes are considered as a source of entertainment, they are also used for scientific pur­poses. Used on rats and human subjects in labora­tories, they are often used to test a person’s memory or thinking skills. There are several types of mazes, such as logic mazes, three dimensional mazes, pic­ture mazes, number mazes and block mazes.

Each maze has its own method or solution, but one thing is for sure, they’re lots of fun and they can keep you entertained on a boring day.