endless stairs
Perpetually ascending steps
Endless stairs are a staircase designed to loop back on itself, creating the illusion of perpetual ascent or descent while returning to the starting point.
The concept appears in M.C.
Escher's famous lithograph and in video games as an impossible architectural feature.
More loosely, endless stairs describes any situation of futile effort—climbing without getting anywhere: Trying to get a straight answer from him was like climbing endless stairs.
- spiralCurve winding around center
- M.C. EscherDutch impossible-geometry artist
- EscherDutch impossible-geometry artist
- infiniteHaving no bounds
- descentDownward slope or lineage
climbing · vertigo · loop · going in circles · hamster wheel · Penrose · impossible · labyrinth · dizzying · ascending · nightmare · optical illusion · tower · steps · winding · eternal · surreal · exhaustion
- optical illusionsoptical illusion, optical illusions, trompe l'oeil, duck-rabbit, afterimages
- surrealist artmelting clocks, dream worlds, impossible geometry, elephant legs, faceless figures
- surreal placesfloating islands, melting clocks, liminal spaces, burning ice
endless stairsfinal step
Ultimate action in sequence
landing · dead end · single step · destination · cul-de-sac
endless stairsexit
Way to leave
destination · arrival point · escape route · way out · finishing line
endless, stairs, stair, endlessly, endlessness, ending, ended, ends, unending