Room 42: Witness the remains of former top hat men led by the guide to room 24 never to return to reclaim their boots, hats, coats, umbrellas, canes, etc. There’s even one preserved as scary taxidermy on the right that can rend with tusk and claw (the umbrella and cane in the elephant foot umbrella stand). Agree that modern mankind is definitely the most dangerous animal. Head to the only room that doesn’t indicate you might be cut up while missing the possible implication that you might be about to get cooked and eaten with salt and pepper…

Room 4: You don’t know why but you’re drawn to the sun like a moth to the flame. You know better by now than to go through the obvious door 11. You’ve already gone through 15 and that just led back to 1. Working systematically in a process of elimination, you head to 16, wonder if that chair has any significance, and duck into that little shadow there to …

Room 16: As fun as he looks, don’t follow Orsen to the left, follow that dapper fellow in the top hat to the right …

Room 7: Is that a picture of top hat man up there by the door to …

Room 33: You scratch your head pondering those bewildering signs, poke around a bit, and realize the only way out has to be through door 3. Maybe later you’ll realize that the door 3 sign is in partial shade and that’s a good thing around here. Wait, this reminds you of the shadow solution in Room 15 that you saw the first time through the great hall. If this room really doesn’t have a floor is it midnight and could that be sunlight!? What would happen if you fell through the center of the earth? If only you had a wooden man to drop down there to find out. Well, don’t get too distracted…

Room 3: Feel pretty good about yourself recognizing the top hat man drawing as the answer to the riddle of the sphinx: “mankind”. Follow him to Room 18. Bonus points for stopping a bit to look for your not so obvious sign, actually flipping the page over its top side even though you don’t really need to, seeing top hat man upside down and thinking that it might be a warning sign for us to avoid extremes so as to not fly too low or too high like Icarus. Maybe the hidden sign behind the stop sign is a u-turn sign, that seems to fit. Maybe we can use that later…

Room 18: Is top hat man lost? The guide wants us to think so, which makes us realize he’s probably just working hard on the path and comes here at the end of the day to burn the wood that he cut from Room 5 and chopped up in Room 4. What would top hat man do if he were in your shoes? You dance to the music along the shadow to the chair, and while ducking behind the curtain to Room 13 you wonder what other connections there may be between here and Room 4.

Room 13: The noon day sun isn’t helpful here, nor is the dark shadowy top hat under the sundial. But what’s in/on the overturned top hat can help if we turn on the light and see the shadow arrow point to …

Room 25: Avoid the dark right end of the room, feel relieved the door 34 sign is tilted to be in the shade and head to …

Room 34: Avoid making any definite decisions because that’s a bit extreme, follow the maybe door to…

Room 10: Is that top hat man dancing over there? Remember Room 3 where you found a u-turn sign hidden behind a stop sign, flipped the page over its top side, and saw top hat man turn into a falling Icarus. Be confident you’re not going to walk through the extra brite door 14, and if you do be sure to take a u-turn right back out. You head through the half open French doors to …

Room 41: Don’t go up, sure as hell don’t go down, stick to the middle and return to 1. Slap your forehead with your palm and realize the whole loop is the middle way compared to the well lit path and deep dark trap. The bright path is more dangerous too, flying closer to the sun and risking just ending up in the trap. But you’re ambitious and determined and maybe a bit better at this game now that you’ve taken this little journey. Did you pick up any tips along the way? Return to …

Room 42: Maybe the guide really was sincere when he said he would help you return. The guide says “You can count on me.” O(15)+N(14) = 29. M(13)+E(5) = 18. Probably just a coincidence…

Room 4. In Room 18 the wood pile was right by that fire. Here that piece of wood and chopping block look a lot like that round peg in the poster. You light the candle like you lit that lamp in Room 13. The shadow of the log and chopping block cast nicely into Door 29 just like the round peg fits nicely into the round donut. You remember the chair in Room 18 and how it looks like a square peg fitting into Room 13’s square doorway just like the bottom image in the poster. Maybe the poster in the shadows behind the curtain to Room 13 is the same poster with the pegs and donuts here in Room 4. Thank you Top Hat Man! Walk confidently into Room 29 with Room 3 in the back of your mind…

The determination of where the words and letters of “like Atlas you bear it upon your shoulders” can be largely discerned simply by knowing the answer, but there are also many pieces of it that aren’t. In the ancient past, Owen Hammer sent a letter to Manson with his understsndingj of the puzzle laid out, and Manson replied that it was essentially correct.

I can’t remember the exact verbiage, or tell you offhand where to find that exchange. It was originally publicized on the old John Bailey Maze site, which no longer exists.

Manson’s response leaves room for the possibility that the solution is overall correct, but incorrect in certain details. (In fact, if it were otherwise, you’d expect a more enthusiastic recognition that the answer was 100% correct, since no one had offered such an explanation before ) Without exploring the whole thing in detail, I would say that I believe that E probably comes from 37, but I wouldn’t be shocked to learn our understanding of that is wrong. The L in 4, however, I can’t imagine being wrong. (Though of course I could be wrong.)

Found it by pure chance and didn’t know what to do with it until now.

1 – 20 – 5 – 30 – 15 – 37 – 42 – 4 – 29 – 17 – 45 – 23 – 28 – 32 – 16 – 36 – 7 – 33 – 3 – 9 – 18 – 13 – 25 – 34 – 10 – 14 – 43 – 22 – 38 – 40 – 11 – 24

It might seem like an arduous task to try to find the longest route of unique rooms, but given the various points of no return, there aren’t that many options to explore. Of course, I may have missed something!