labyrinth

labyrinth.
1. Key-pattern, maze, or meander.

2. Planting in a garden arranged as hedges between labyrinthine paths leading to a centre, a feature of C17 garden design, e.g. Hampton Court

3. Place laid out for ritual pilgrimage in a church, e.g. the inlaid labyrinth of blue and white stones in the nave-floor of Chartres Cathedral, France: the centre of such a labyrinth was the Jerusalem or Paradise, the Holy City of God to which the pilgrim aspired.

4. Maze cut in turf, as at Wing, Rut., and Saffron Walden, Essex, England, similar in design to the labyrinths in churches, which has led to a Christian interpretation being placed upon them, but they may have a non-Christian origin.

Bibliography

Bord (1976);
Coate et al . (1986);
A. Fisher & and Gerster (1990);
A. Fisher & and Loxton (1997);
Kern (2000);
Ladendorff (1963);
Matthews (1970);
Pennick (1990)