It looks like the street map of a really complex city of the future, but this intricate drawing is really a 30-year-old maze drawn by a Japanese janitor. His daughter posted photos of the complicated work on Twitter, which went viral almost instantly.

Just last year, we posted an article about the efforts of Joe Wos, a Pittsburgh-based cartoonist who was working on the world’s largest most difficult hand-drawn maze. He worked on it from July until the end of September, and estimated that a person would need approximately 40 hours to solve it. His doodle-filled maze is truly something to behold, but I doubt it’s more challenging than the one created by Twitter user @Kya7y‘s father. Drawn on an A1 sheet of paper measuring 35 by 23.3 inches, this multi-layered masterpiece reportedly took the artist seven years and several months to complete. “Won’t somebody make it to the goal?” @Kya7y tweeted after posting the pics. And, believe it or not, there were actually plenty of people willing to waste several days of their lives trying to find the exit… If there even is one.

“Oh, right!” @Kya7y tweeted, “I forgot something very important: it’s not possible possible to reach the goal.” Assaulted with questions, she then added: “I’m not really sure, but for the time being, my dad, who created this, hasn’t even reached the goal.” That’s saying a lot, but still plenty of people were up to the challenge. So she made 50 printed copies of the drawing and sent them to would-be solvers. They were never heard from again. I’m sure they’re ok, unless they popped a vessel trying to keep their concentration whale going through the maze, but none of them has yet managed to solve it. I mean just look at this thing, it even looks impossible.

Solvable or not, this is one great-looking work of art. When people asked to know more about the man behind the maze, @Kya7y tweeted again: “Where does my father work? At a public university!! In the athletic department!!! As a janitor.” Talk about never judging a book by its covers, eh? And if you needed more proof of this guy’s talent, we posted a few more of his incredible drawings, after the maze photos.

via Spoon & Tamago