House of mirrors

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A house of mirrors or hall of mirrors is a traditional attraction at funfairs (carnivals) and amusement parks. The basic concept behind a house of mirrors is to be a maze-like puzzle, but in addition to confounding the spatial senses with a labyrinth element, the visual senses are also confounded by the construction of the walls of the maze of optically reflective material, most often glass mirrors. Sometimes each mirror may be distorted into different curved, convex or concave shapes to give the participants unusual and confusing reflections of themselves.

Frequently, in fiction, battles sometimes take place within a hall of mirrors, where one person's image is broadcast on many mirrors whilst their stalker is firing at several images of their target. Some notable times this has happened include on the shows Macgyver, where Jack Dalton is brainwashed and is forced to fire on Macgyver, and on the Teen Titans series episode 'Betrayal' where Slade tells Beast Boy that Terra works for him. Francisco Scaramanga's "Fun House" in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun has a House of Mirrors part.

[edit] History

The origins of the house of mirrors stems from the hall of mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.

Upon a visit to France to discuss colonial land agreements, Peter Stuyvesant arrived at the Palace of Versailles and gazed upon the hall of mirrors present in the palace. Peter (or Petris) became determined to bring this amazement to the newly founded colonial city of New Amsterdam, of which he was governor. Peter Stuyvesant's House of Mirrors was founded in 1651 and he charged one Dutch gulden for admission into his house of mirrors.