  We characterize 2-dimensional complexes associated canonically with basis
graphs of matroids as simply connected triangle-square complexes satisfying
some local conditions. This proves a version of a (disproved) conjecture by
Stephen Maurer (Conjecture 3 of S. Maurer, Matroid basis graphs I, JCTB 14
(1973), 216-240). We also establish Conjecture 1 from the same paper about the
redundancy of the conditions in the characterization of basis graphs. We
indicate positive-curvature-like aspects of the local properties of the studied
complexes. We characterize similarly the corresponding 2-dimensional complexes
of even $\Delta$-matroids.
