Kryptos
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}{{short description|Encrypted sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn}}{{about|the sculpture|other uses|Kryptos (disambiguation)}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image = Kryptos sculptor.jpg
| image_size =
| title = Kryptos
| artist = Jim Sanborn
| year = 1990
| dimensions = 11–12 feet × 20 feet
| museum = George Bush Center for Intelligence
| city = Langley, Virginia
| coordinates = {{Coord|38.95227|-77.14573|type:landmark_region:US-VA|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
}}
Kryptos is a sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters, the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.{{cite web |date=July 18, 2017 |title=Kryptos sculpture |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06498615 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107223455/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06498615 |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024 |website=Central Intelligence Agency |publisher=Intellipedia |at=Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room |language=en}}
Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the four encrypted messages it bears. Of these four messages, the first three have been solved, while the fourth message remains one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. It is said{{According to whom|date=May 2025}} that a fifth message will reveal itself after the first four are solved. The sculpture continues to be of interest to cryptanalysts, both amateur and professional, who are attempting to decode the fourth passage. The artist has so far given four clues to this passage.
Description
The sculpture comprises four large copper plates with other elements consisting of water, wood, plants, red and green granite, white quartz, and petrified wood. The most prominent feature of the entire piece is a large vertical S-shaped copper screen resembling a scroll or a piece of paper emerging from a computer printer, half of which consists of encrypted text, that is located in the northwest corner of the New Headquarters Building courtyard, outside of the agency's cafeteria. The characters are all found within the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, along with question marks, and are cut out of the copper plates. The main sculpture contains four separate enigmatic messages, three of which have been deciphered.{{Cite book |last1=Burstein |first1=Daniel |title=Secrets of The Lost Symbol |last2=Keijzer |first2=Arne de |date=December 22, 2009 |publisher=William Morrow |isbn=978-0061964954 |edition=1st |location=New York |lccn=2011282732 |oclc=422763820 |ol=OL25132741M}}
In addition to the main part of the sculpture, Sanborn also placed other pieces of art on the CIA grounds, such as several large granite slabs with sandwiched copper sheets outside the entrance to the New Headquarters Building. Several Morse code messages are found on these copper sheets, and one of the stone slabs has an engraving of a compass rose pointing to a lodestone. The ciphers' increasing "complexity" through the entrance into the courtyard is intended to be as if it "were a fossil".{{Cite journal |last=Sanborn |first=Jim |date=15 December 1989 |title=Project Explanation |url=https://www.thekryptosproject.com/kryptos/cia/thecryptogram/pdfs/Binder2.pdf |url-status=live |journal=American Cryptogram Association |type=a courtesy message directed to "Agency Employers" |volume=LVII |page=8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160827012052/https://www.thekryptosproject.com/kryptos/cia/thecryptogram/pdfs/Binder2.pdf |archive-date=27 August 2016}} Other elements of Sanborn's installation include a landscaped garden area, a fish pond with opposing wooden benches, a reflecting pool, and other pieces of stone, including a triangle-shaped black stone slab.
The name Kryptos comes from the ancient Greek word for "hidden", and the theme of the sculpture is "intelligence gathering". The cost of building the sculpture in 1988 was {{Currency|250000|USD|linked=no}} (worth ~{{Currency|660,000|USD|linked=no}} in 2024).
Encrypted messages
The ciphertext on the left-hand side (as seen from the courtyard) of the main sculpture contains 869 characters in total: 865 letters and 4 question marks. In April 2006, Sanborn released information stating that a letter was omitted from this side of Kryptos "for aesthetic reasons, to keep the sculpture visually balanced".{{cite magazine |last1=Zetter |first1=Kim |date=2006-04-20 |title=Typo Confounds Kryptos Sleuths |url=https://www.wired.com/2006/04/typo-confounds-kryptos-sleuths/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106143139/https://www.wired.com/2006/04/typo-confounds-kryptos-sleuths/ |archive-date=2018-11-06 |access-date=2024-12-04 |magazine=Wired}} There are also three misspelled words in the plaintext of the deciphered first three passages, which Sanborn has said was intentional, and three letters ("YAR") near the beginning of the bottom half of the left side are the only characters on the sculpture in superscript.
The right-hand side of the sculpture comprises a keyed Vigenère encryption tableau, consisting of 867 letters. One of the lines of the Vigenère tableau has an extra character (L). Bauer, Link, and Molle suggest that this may be a reference to the Hill cipher as an encryption method for the fourth passage of the sculpture.{{Cite journal |last1=Bauer |first1=Craig |last2=Link |first2=Gregory |last3=Molle |first3=Dante |date=2016-04-27 |title=James Sanborn's Kryptos and the matrix encryption conjecture |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01611194.2016.1141556 |journal=Cryptologia |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=548 |doi=10.1080/01611194.2016.1141556 |issn=0161-1194 |url-access=subscription}} However, Sanborn omitted the extra letter from the small Kryptos models that he sold.
| +The encryptions that were ascribed
|Left side, as seen from the courtyardThe left-side encryptions are often divided into four sections: K1, K2, K3 and K4. {{Col-start}}{{Col-1-of-2}}K1: "EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD" K2: "VFPJUDEEHZWETZYVGWHKKQETGFQJNCE GGWHKK?DQMCPFQZDQMMIAGPFXHQRLG TIMVMZJANQLVKQEDAGDVFRPJUNGEUNA QZGZLECGYUXUEENJTBJLBQCRTBJDFHRR YIZETKZEMVDUFKSJHKFWHKUWQLSZFTI HHDDDUVH?DWKBFUFPWNTDFIYCUQZERE EVLDKFEZMOQQJLTTUGSYQPFEUNLAVIDX FLGGTEZ?FKZBSFDQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF FHQNTGPUAECNUVPDJMQCLQUMUNEDFQ ELZZVRRGKFFVOEEXBDMVPNFQXEZLGRE DNQFMPNZGLFLPMRJQYALMGNUVPDXVKP DQUMEBEDMHDAFMJGZNUPLGEWJLLAETG"{{Col-2-of-2}} K3: "ENDYAHROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB TEEFOASFIOTUETUAEOTOARMAEERTNRTI BSEDDNIAAHTTMSTEWPIEROAGRIEWFEB AECTDDHILCEIHSITEGOEAOSDDRYDLORIT RKLMLEHAGTDHARDPNEOHMGFMFEUHE ECDMRIPFEIMEHNLSSTTRTVDOHW?" K4: "OBKR UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR"{{Col-end}} |Right side, as seen from the courtyard |
| ----
| EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ | ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCD |
Sanborn worked with a retiring CIA employee named Edward Scheidt to come up with the cryptographic systems used on the sculpture.{{cite web |last1=Champagne |first1=Christine |last2=Beebe |first2=Drew |date=July 25, 2020 |title=This sculpture at CIA headquarters holds one of the world's most famous unsolved mysteries |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/25/us/kryptos-secret-message-code-trnd/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314144556/https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/25/us/kryptos-secret-message-code-trnd/index.html |archive-date=March 14, 2024 |access-date=July 25, 2020 |website=edition.cnn.com |publisher=CNN}} Edward Scheidt stated that the difficulty of the encryption was around nine out of ten. He said that his intention was for it to be solved in five to ten years. He also said that there was an intentional "change in the methodology" of the encryption.{{Cite web |last=Bean |first=Richard |date=2021-05-30 |title=Declassified Cold War code-breaking manual has lessons for solving 'impossible' puzzles |url=http://theconversation.com/declassified-cold-war-code-breaking-manual-has-lessons-for-solving-impossible-puzzles-161595 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240508201044/https://theconversation.com/declassified-cold-war-code-breaking-manual-has-lessons-for-solving-impossible-puzzles-161595 |archive-date=May 8, 2024 |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}} Sanborn has also stated that should he die before the entire sculpture is deciphered, someone should be able to confirm the solution.{{Cite magazine |last=Zetter |first=Kim |date=January 20, 2005 |title=Questions for Kryptos' Creator |url=https://www.wired.com/2005/01/questions-for-kryptos-creator/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424075336/https://www.wired.com/2005/01/questions-for-kryptos-creator/ |archive-date=April 24, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-05 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}} In 2020, Sanborn stated that he planned to put the secret to the solution up for auction once he died.
Sanborn had stated that the sculpture contains a riddle within a riddle, which will be solvable only after the four encrypted passages have been deciphered. He has given conflicting information about the sculpture's answer, saying at one time that he gave the complete solution to the then-CIA director William Webster during the dedication ceremony, but later, he also said that he had not given Webster the entire solution. He did, however, confirm that a passage of the plaintext of the second message reads, "Who knows the exact location? Only WW."{{Cite web |last=Nair |first=Nandana |date=2021-09-20 |title=Kryptos– The Mystery That Not Even The Smartest People Have Been Able To Solve For 30 Years |url=https://edtimes.in/kryptos-the-mystery-that-not-even-the-smartest-people-have-been-able-to-solve-for-30-years/ |access-date=2024-06-01 |language=en-US}}"WW" has been speculated to be a reference to William Webster.
Solvers
The first person to announce publicly that he had solved the first three passages was Jim Gillogly, a computer scientist from southern California, who deciphered these passages using a computer, and revealed his solutions in 1999.{{cite news |author=Markoff, John |author-link=John Markoff |date=June 16, 1999 |title=CIA's Artistic Enigma Reveals All but Final Clues |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/16code.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231020061426/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/biztech/articles/16code.html |archive-date=October 20, 2023 |access-date=December 11, 2011 |work=New York Times}} After Gillogly's announcement, the CIA revealed that their analyst David Stein had solved the same passages in 1998 using pencil and paper techniques, although at the time of his solution the information was only disseminated within the intelligence community.{{cite journal|journal=Studies in Intelligence|title=The Puzzle at CIA Headquarters: Cracking the Courtyard Crypto |first=David D. |last=Stein |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB431/docs/intell_ebb_010.PDF|year=1999|volume=43|issue=1}}{{cite web |last=Stein |first=David D. |date=July 23, 2018 |title=Cracking the Courtyard Crypto |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06712772 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107225212/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06712772 |archive-date=January 7, 2024 |access-date=January 7, 2024 |publisher=CIA |at=Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room}} No public announcement was made until July 1999,{{cite news |last=Schwartz |first=John |date=July 19, 1999 |title=Cracking the Code of a CIA Sculpture |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/july99/kryptos19.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616083312/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/july99/kryptos19.htm |archive-date=June 16, 2016 |access-date=December 11, 2011 |newspaper=Washington Post}}{{cite magazine |last=Zetter |first=Kim |date=June 5, 2013 |title=CIA Releases Analyst's Fascinating Tale of Cracking the Kryptos Sculpture |url=https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/analyst-who-cracked-kryptos/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117141643/https://www.wired.com/2013/06/analyst-who-cracked-kryptos/ |archive-date=January 17, 2024 |access-date=5 June 2013 |magazine=Wired |publisher=Wired.com}} although in November 1998 it was revealed that "a CIA analyst working on his own time [had] solved 'the lion's share' of it".{{cite news |author=Bessonette |first=Colin |date=November 16, 1998 |title=Q&A on the News |url=https://go.newspapers.com/results.php?query=%22cia+analyst+working+on+his+own+time%22&s_place=&date_field= |url-access=subscription |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |page=A2 |quote=A CIA analyst working on his own time has solved 'the lion's share' of it, but it hasn't been completely decoded, CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield told Q&A. He said the best way to describe the sculpture is to say it incorporates natural building materials native to America and includes an encoded copper screen. When and if someone completely solves the message, a decision will be made about releasing it to the public, 'but we're not at that point yet,' Mansfield said.}}
The NSA claimed that some of their employees had solved the same three passages but would not reveal names or dates until March 2000, when it was learned that an NSA team led by Ken Miller, along with Dennis McDaniels and two other unnamed individuals, had solved passages{{Nbsp}}1–3 in late 1992.{{cite news |author=Bowman, Tom |author-link=Tom Bowman (journalist) |date=March 17, 2000 |title=Unlocking the secret of 'Kryptos' |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2000/03/17/unlocking-the-secret-of-kryptos-cryptogram-for-nearly-a-decade-a-jumble-of-seemingly-random-letters-on-a-sculpture-at-cia-headquarters-has-mystified-experts-who-have-tried-to-decipher-its-code/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209165252/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2000-03-17/news/0003180448_1_decipher-petrified-wood-cia-headquarters |archive-date=February 9, 2014 |access-date=December 11, 2011 |work=The Baltimore Sun}} In 2013, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Elonka Dunin, the NSA released documents that show these attempts to solve the Kryptos puzzle in 1992, following a challenge by Bill Studeman, then Deputy Director of the CIA. The documents show that by June 1993, a small group of NSA cryptanalysts had succeeded in solving the first three passages of the sculpture.{{cite news |last=Sadowski |first=Jathan |date=July 11, 2013 |title=NSA Cracked Kryptos Before the CIA. What Other Mysteries Has It Solved? |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/11/nsa_cracked_kryptos_statue_before_the_cia.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204090332/https://slate.com/technology/2013/07/nsa-cracked-kryptos-statue-before-the-cia.html |archive-date=February 4, 2024 |work=Slate}}
All previous attempts to solve Kryptos found that passage 2 ended with "WESTIDBYROWS". However, in 2005, Nicole Friedrich, a logician from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, determined that another possible plaintext was "WESTXLAYERTWO".{{cite web |date=2005-10-11 |others=Quoted from Elonka Dunin |title=From a radio interview on BellCoreRadio, season 1, episode 32, Barcode Brothers |url=http://sites.google.com/site/sarenasix/home |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019073449/http://sites.google.com/site/sarenasix/home |archive-date=October 19, 2015 |access-date=2011-11-12 |website=SarenaSix}} On April 19, 2006, Sanborn contacted an online community dedicated to the Kryptos puzzle to inform them that he made an error in the sculpture by omitting an S in the ciphertext (an X in the plaintext), and he confirmed that the last passage of the plaintext was "WESTXLAYERTWO", and not "WESTIDBYROWS".{{cite magazine |last1=Zetter |first1=Kim |date=November 20, 2014 |title=Finally, a New Clue to Solve the CIA's Mysterious Kryptos Sculpture |url=https://www.wired.com/2014/11/second-kryptos-clue/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106234825/https://www.wired.com/2014/11/second-kryptos-clue/ |archive-date=January 6, 2015 |access-date=25 November 2014 |magazine=Wired |quote=in 2006, Sanborn realized he had also made an inadvertent error, a missing "x" that he mistakenly deleted from the end of a line in passage 2, a passage that was already solved.}}
Solutions
The following are the decryptions of passages{{Nbsp}}1–3 of the sculpture.{{cite web |author=Lindsly |first=Corey |date=June 16, 1999 |title=fx-discuss: FC: Cypherpunk breaks CIA's crypto code in 1990 statue (fwd) |url=http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/mirrors/cypherpunks/1999/0930.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905021236/https://www.elonka.com/kryptos/mirrors/cypherpunks/1999/0930.html |archive-date=September 5, 2023 |access-date=2011-11-12 |website=elonka.com}} The texts were added with blank spaces, but misspellings present in the text are included verbatim.
= Morse code =
The translations of the International Morse code (sometimes called K0) that are ascribed to the copper slabs when read facing the south:{{Cite web |title=K0 Solution |url=https://thekryptosproject.com/kryptos/k0-k5/k0.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419162547/https://thekryptosproject.com/kryptos/k0-k5/k0.php |archive-date=April 19, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=The Kryptos Project}}Sources might write "INTERPRETATIT" as "INTERPRETATIU" or "INTERPRETATIO[N]" due to the presumed dash that is consistent with O in International Morse code. {{Cite web |last=(anonymous) |others=Photos by Jim Gillgoly |title=Kryptos – Beyond K4 |date=May 17, 2009 |url=https://kryptosfan.wordpress.com/morse-code/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151226160921/https://kryptosfan.wordpress.com/morse-code/ |archive-date=December 26, 2015 |access-date=May 6, 2024 |at=Morse Code}} And the E after "POSITION" is sometimes not present. {{Cite web |last=Wilson |others=Contributions by Eric Hall |title=Morse Code |url=https://www.elonka.com/kryptos/mirrors/daw/MorseCode.txt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513083326/https://www.elonka.com/kryptos/mirrors/daw/MorseCode.txt |archive-date=May 13, 2023 |format=TXT}}
E E VIRTUALLY E | E E E E E E INVISIBLE
DIGETAL E E E | INTERPRETATIT
E E SHADOW E E | FORCES E E E E E
LUCID E E E | MEMORY E
T IS YOUR | POSITION E
SOS
RQ
= Solution of passage{{Nbsp}}1 =
- Method: Vigenère
- Keywords: "Kryptos" and "palimpsest"
BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION
Iqlusion was an intentional misspelling of illusion by the creator, Jim Sanborn, that was intended to throw people off.{{cite magazine |last1=Zetter |first1=Kim |date=10 July 2013 |title=Documents Reveal How the NSA Cracked the Kryptos Sculpture Years Before the CIA |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/07/nsa-cracked-kryptos-before-cia/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510190612/https://www.wired.com/2013/07/nsa-cracked-kryptos-before-cia/ |archive-date=May 10, 2023 |access-date=10 April 2020 |magazine=Wired}}
= Solution of passage{{Nbsp}}2 =
- Method: Vigenère
- Keywords: "Kryptos" and "abscissa"
IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE HOWS THAT POSSIBLE ? THEY USED THE EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD X THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO AN UNKNOWN LOCATION X DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS ? THEY SHOULD ITS BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE X THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES FIFTY SEVEN MINUTES SIX POINT FIVE SECONDS NORTH SEVENTY SEVEN DEGREES EIGHT MINUTES FORTY FOUR SECONDS WEST X LAYER TWO
The coordinates mentioned in the plaintext, {{coord|38|57|6.5|N|77|8|44|W}}, have been interpreted using a modern Geodetic datum as indicating a point that is approximately {{Convert|174|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} southeast of the sculpture.
= Solution of passage{{Nbsp}}3 =
- Method: Transposition
SLOWLY DESPARATLY SLOWLY THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WAS REMOVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN THE HOT AIR ESCAPING FROM THE CHAMBER CAUSED THE FLAME TO FLICKER BUT PRESENTLY DETAILS OF THE ROOM WITHIN EMERGED FROM THE MIST X CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING Q ?
This is a paraphrased quotation from Howard Carter's account of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun on November 26, 1922, as described in his 1923 book The Tomb of Tutankhamun.{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Howard |author-link=Howard Carter (archaeologist) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SeKrPAAACAAJ |title=The Tomb of Tutankhamen |date=1923 |publisher=Little Books, Limited |isbn=9781906251109 |edition=1st |location=London |publication-date=October 19, 2016 |at=The finding of the tomb |language=en |oclc=174131378}}{{Page needed|date=May 2024}} The question with which it ends is asked by Lord Carnarvon, to which Carter in the book replied, "wonderful things". Field notes from the expedition, however, show his reply as, "Yes, it is wonderful".{{Cite web |last=Malek |first=Jaromir |date=May 15, 2006 |editor-last=Hutchison |editor-first=Sue |editor2-last=Miles |editor2-first=Elizabeth |editor3-last=Magee |editor3-first=Diana |editor4-last=Rawlinson |editor4-first=Kent |editor5-last=Allen |editor5-first=Lindsay |editor6-last=Hobby |editor6-first=Alison |editor7-last=Malek |editor7-first=Jaromir |others=Designed by Jonathan Moffett |title=Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation |url=http://www.ashmolean.org/gri/4tut.html |url-status=dead |archive-date= May 18, 2007|website=ashmolean.org |publisher=Griffith Institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518224221/http://www.ashmolean.org/gri/4tut.html }}{{Specify|date=May 2024}}
Clues given for passage{{Nbsp}}4{{Anchor|Clues given}}
File:Mengenlehreuhr.jpg (Berlin Clock) may be the "Berlin Clock" the encrypted message references.]]
When commenting in 2006 about his error in passage{{Nbsp}}2, Sanborn said that the answers to the first three passages contain clues to the fourth passage. In November 2010, Sanborn released a clue, publicly stating that "NYPVTT", the 64th–69th letters in passage{{Nbsp}}4, become "BERLIN" after decryption.{{cite web |last=Schwartz |first=John |date=2010-11-20 |title=Artist releases clue to Kryptos |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/us/21code.html?hp |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419162546/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/us/21code.html?hp |archive-date=April 19, 2023 |access-date=2011-11-12 |work=The New York Times}}{{cite web |author=(anonymous) |author-link= |date=November 22, 2010 |title='Kryptos' Sculptor Drops New Clue In 20-Year Mystery |url=https://www.npr.org/2010/11/22/131520768/-kryptos-sculptor-drops-new-clue-in-20-year-mystery |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224095151/https://www.npr.org/2010/11/22/131520768/-kryptos-sculptor-drops-new-clue-in-20-year-mystery |archive-date=February 24, 2024 |access-date=2011-11-12 |website=National Public Radio}}
Sanborn gave The New York Times another clue in November 2014: the letters "MZFPK", the 70th–74th letters in passage{{Nbsp}}4, become "CLOCK" after decryption.{{cite web |date=November 20, 2014 |others=Photos by Drew Angerer |title=A New Clue to 'Kryptos' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/21/science/new-clue-to-kryptos.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314140257/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/21/science/new-clue-to-kryptos.html |archive-date=March 14, 2024 |access-date=November 21, 2014 |work=The New York Times}} The 74th letter is K in both the plaintext and ciphertext, meaning that it is possible for a character to encrypt to itself. Sanborn further stated that in order to solve passage{{Nbsp}}4, "You'd better delve into that particular clock", but added, "There are several really interesting clocks in Berlin."{{cite web |last=Schwartz |first=John |date=November 20, 2014 |title=Sculptor Offers Another Clue in 24-Year-Old Mystery at C.I.A. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/us/another-kryptos-clue-is-offered-in-a-24-year-old-mystery-at-the-cia.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224133656/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/us/another-kryptos-clue-is-offered-in-a-24-year-old-mystery-at-the-cia.html |archive-date=February 24, 2024 |access-date=November 22, 2014 |website=The New York Times |agency=}} The particular clock in question is presumably the Berlin Clock, although the Alexanderplatz World Clock and Clock of Flowing Time are other candidates.
In an article published on January 29, 2020, by The New York Times, Sanborn gave another clue: at positions 26–34, ciphertext "QQPRNGKSS" is the word "NORTHEAST".{{cite web |last1=Schwartz |first1=John |last2=Corum |first2=Jonathan |date=January 29, 2020 |title=This Sculpture Holds a Decades-Old C.I.A. Mystery. And Now, Another Clue |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/29/climate/kryptos-sculpture-final-clue.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240504215836/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/29/climate/kryptos-sculpture-final-clue.html |archive-date=May 4, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}
In August 2020, Sanborn revealed that the four letters in positions 22–25, ciphertext "FLRV", in the plaintext are "EAST". Sanborn commented that he "released this layout to several people as early as April".{{Cite tweet |number=1297658577914667008 |user=@jswatz |title=KRYPTOS NEWS: Jim Sanborn, creator of the Kryptos sculpture, quietly released four new plaintext letters to the unsolved potion, K4. EAST, which goes just before the recently released NORTHEAST. Here's my story from January |first=John |last=Schwartz |date=August 24, 2020 |access-date=May 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240314154346/https://twitter.com/jswatz/status/1297658577914667008 |archive-date=March 14, 2024 |url-status=live}}
Related sculptures
After producing Kryptos, Sanborn's first cryptographic sculpture, he went on to make several other sculptures with codes, including an "Untitled Kryptos Piece" and Cyrillic Projector, which contain encrypted Russian Cyrillic text that includes an extract from a classified KGB document. The cipher on one side of Sanborn's 1997 sculpture Antipodes repeats part of the text from Kryptos with slight differences.
In popular culture
The dust jacket of the US version of Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code contains two references to Kryptos—one on the back cover (coordinates printed light red on dark red, vertically next to the blurbs) is a reference to the coordinates mentioned in the plaintext of passage{{Nbsp}}2, except the degree digit is off by one. When Brown and his publisher were asked about this, they both gave the same reply: "The discrepancy is intentional". The coordinates were part of the first clue of the second The Da Vinci Code WebQuests, with the first answer being Kryptos. The other reference is hidden in the brown "tear" artwork—the upside-down text "Only WW knows" is another reference to the second message on Kryptos.{{cite web |date=December 14, 2003 |title=FAQ About Kryptos |url=http://elonka.com/kryptos/faq.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240421231607/https://elonka.com/kryptos/faq.html |archive-date=April 21, 2024 |access-date=2011-11-12 |website=elonka.com |at=Q: How much did Kryptos cost?}}{{cite news |author=McKinnon, John D. |date=May 27, 2005 |title=CIA sculpture 'kryptos' draws mystery lovers |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05147/511693.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217114750/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05147/511693.stm |archive-date=February 17, 2007 |access-date=December 11, 2011 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette}} Kryptos was also featured in another of Dan Brown's novels, The Lost Symbol (2009).
A small version of Kryptos appears in the season 5 episode of Alias "S.O.S.". In it, Marshall Flinkman says he has cracked the code just by looking at it during a tour visit to the CIA office. The solution he describes sounds like the solution to the first two parts. It was also mentioned as "Kryptos Donuts" in the sixth episode of The Recruit{{'s}} Season 1, "I.N.A.S.I.A.L.".
See also
Notes
References
{{reflist|30em}}
= Books =
- {{cite book|title=Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction|year=2003|isbn=0-88675-072-5|author=Jonathan Binstock and Jim Sanborn|publisher=Corcoran Gallery of Art }} (contains 1–2 pages about Kryptos)
- {{cite book|author-link=Elonka Dunin|author=Dunin, Elonka|title=The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms|year=2006|page=500|publisher=Constable & Robinson|isbn=0-7867-1726-2}}
- {{cite book|title=Secrets of the Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel|editor=Daniel Burstein|editor2=Arne de Keijzer|author=Dunin, Elonka|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2009|isbn=978-0-06-196495-4|chapter=Kryptos: The Unsolved Enigma|pages=[https://archive.org/details/secretsoflostsym00burs/page/319 319–326]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/secretsoflostsym00burs|url=https://archive.org/details/secretsoflostsym00burs/page/319}}
- {{cite book|title=Secrets of the Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel|editor=Daniel Burstein|editor2=Arne de Keijzer|author=Dunin, Elonka|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2009|isbn=978-0-06-196495-4|chapter=Art, Encryption, and the Preservation of Secrets: An interview with Jim Sanborn|pages=[https://archive.org/details/secretsoflostsym00burs/page/294 294–300]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/secretsoflostsym00burs|url=https://archive.org/details/secretsoflostsym00burs/page/294}}
- {{cite book|title=Illustrated Guide to the Lost Symbol|editor=John Weber|author=Taylor, Greg|isbn=978-1-4165-2366-6|year=2009|chapter=Decoding Kryptos|publisher=Simon & Schuster|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781416523666}}
= Journal articles =
- {{cite journal|last1=Bauer|first1=Craig|last2=Link|first2=Gregory|last3=Molle|first3=Dante|date=2016|title=James Sanborn's Kryptos and the matrix encryption conjecture|journal=Cryptologia|volume=40|issue=5|pages =541–552|doi=10.1080/01611194.2016.1141556|s2cid=26592088}}
= Conference papers =
- {{cite conference |title=Cryptodiagnosis of "Kryptos K4" |doi=10.3384/ecp183153 |last=Bean |first=Richard |conference=4th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt |year=2021|doi-access=free }}
= Articles =
- [https://www.cia.gov/legacy/headquarters/kryptos-sculpture/ Kryptos 1,735 Alphabetical letters]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20180821055321/http://www.ussrback.com/crypto/nsa/kryptos/cia-art-jg.htm "Gillogly Cracks CIA Art", & "The Kryptos Code Unmasked"], 1999, The New York Times
- [https://www.baltimoresun.com/2000/03/17/unlocking-the-secret-of-kryptos-cryptogram-for-nearly-a-decade-a-jumble-of-seemingly-random-letters-on-a-sculpture-at-cia-headquarters-has-mystified-experts-who-have-tried-to-decipher-its-code/ "Unlocking the secret of Kryptos"], March 17, 2000, The Baltimore Sun
- [https://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66334,00.html "Solving the Enigma of Kryptos"], January 26, 2005, Wired, by Kim Zetter
- [https://www.theguardian.com/international/story/0,,1504223,00.html "Interest grows in solving cryptic CIA puzzle after link to Da Vinci Code"], June 11, 2005, The Guardian
- [http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/19/cracking.the.code/index.html "Cracking the Code"], June 19, 2005, CNN
External links
{{Commons category|Kryptos}}
{{Wikiquote}}
- [http://jimsanborn.net/main.html#KRYPTOS/ Jim Sanborn's official Kryptos webpage]
- [http://www.elonka.com/kryptos Kryptos] website maintained by Elonka Dunin (includes [http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/faq.html Kryptos FAQ], [http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/transcript.html transcript], pictures and links)
- [http://www.voynich.net/Kryptos/ Kryptos photos] by Jim Gillogly
- [https://www.cia.gov/legacy/headquarters/kryptos-sculpture/ The Central Intelligence Agency Kryptos webpage]
{{Jim Sanborn}}
Category:1990 establishments in Virginia
Category:Buildings and structures in Fairfax County, Virginia
Category:Central Intelligence Agency
Category:Copper sculptures in the United States
Category:Granite sculptures in Virginia
Category:History of cryptography
Category:Outdoor sculptures in Virginia
Category:Sculptures by Jim Sanborn
Category:Stone sculptures in Virginia