"The Tower of Mahjong"
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The theme is based on the chinese game Mahjong. It is played like a mix between a domino and a card game, and it is played with 144 different block tiles, out which 42 are unique. As seen in the tilemap below, there are three parts numbered from 1 to 9, four which represnt the four seasons, four which represent four flowers, four representing four winds, and three representing three dragons (42 total). Most of them need some understading of the chinese characters (which I am a bit familiar with, thanks to my Singapore friend connection) and the placing of the tiles are not random at all. |
| Moreover, it is a 21-tile magic puzzle after all, and to hold the entire single loop, I had to use three green elastic rings to hold it in its "tower" state. In the picture below is what happens without the elastic rings |
| The second solution (photos below) looks more like the style when four players have spread their mahjong pieces on the table. |
| Here is a picture with the two different solutions. Going from one to another, is not only tedious, but it can be a nightmare!!! |
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It is a very elegant and carefully made puzzle. And because of its natural creme color (similar to the original mahjong pieces), it looks as if it was made of ivory. And as stated, the placement and numbering of the tiles, is far from random! Here is a photo of the Tower of Mahjong beside my most popular puzzle so far, the Secret of Atlantis. |
Finally many thanks to C.J. (she is from Singapore and lives in Australia)
for inspiring me to make this puzzle! :-)
To build this puzzle you will need some strings, plastic tiles, and some nice
paper tiles.
For information of how to connect/number the tiles and the strings, visit
two brilliant articles here
and here,
(courtesy of Twisty Puzzles
articles).
Please let me know of any comments or suggestions. Thanks! :-)