Almost 800 years ago, the most famous labyrinth in the world was inlaid into the floor of the Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France. Today, a replica of the Chartres Labyrinth has been brought to life by United Christian Campus Ministries.

UCCM, a Christian organization at Iowa State, brought the Labyrinth Project to Ames last spring.

The Labyrinth Project is a national movement that focuses on using labyrinths as a tool to foster mediation and prayer.

“I think it allows people in this vicinity to have access to a form of prayer and meditation that has not been available before,” said Beverly Thompson-Travis, campus minister with the organization.

The labyrinth is a 36-foot, octagon-shaped pattern drawn or painted onto white canvas.

It can be likened to a continuous maze without dead ends that starts at the beginning, eventually reaches the center and then finishes at the beginning again.

People can walk the one-third mile course of the labyrinth, one foot in front of the other, in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes.

For some who have walked the labyrinth, the winding path has taken them by surprise.

“It is a metaphor for life,” said First Baptist Church Secretary Gayle Osterberg. “You get closer to the center, and then it throws you to the outside again.”

Thompson-Travis said often the labyrinth confuses people at first.

“It can kind of catch people by surprise a little bit when they think they have arrived at the center, but they really have not,” she said.

Thompson-Travis was inspired to bring a labyrinth to Ames after reading an article in The New York Times about the Grace Cathedral Labyrinth Project.

The organization, headed by an 18-member leadership roundtable, ordered plans for its labyrinth through Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Calif.

Thompson-Travis said members of the roundtable then spent several hours a day for a couple of weeks drawing the pattern and painting it.

The canvas was cut and stitched by Cedar Rapids Canvas and Awning.

Members of the organization believe that the labyrinth benefits the spiritual lives of those who walk it.

“It kind of brings things together when you are kind of scattered and confused,” said Sue Prins, member of the UCCM leadership roundtable and designer of the tools used to draw the organization’s labyrinth.

Osterberg said he enjoyed the labyrinth tremendously.

“I walked it a couple of times, and it was very interesting,” Osterberg said. “It is a different experience every time you do it. It is very fascinating.”

The labyrinth in Ames has been walked by more than 100 people. It has been taken on retreats, used for pastoral counseling purposes and can be walked by one or many at a time.

The labyrinth is open on Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of the First Baptist Church, 200 Lynn Ave.

Labyrinths appear to be growing in popularity across the United States.

They can be found in churches in many states, including Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin and New York.

As for Iowa labyrinths, in addition to the one in Ames, there also is a labyrinth in Urbandale.

Jenna McCarley, member of the UCCM leadership roundtable, had the opportunity to walk one of the labyrinths at the Grace Cathedral.

“It was really a fantastic moment because the organist was practicing,” she said. “I thought the pipes were going to take the roof right off the building. It was very inspiring.”