K Kryptos

Last Updated:
05/26/03

Challenging Sculpture/Puzzle in CIA Courtyard
Notes, Info, Solutions

Kryptos Coordinate Plot

An attempt at accurately plotting the enigmatic coordinates listed in Kryptos part 3.

Jim Gillogly's Photos

Renowned Kryptos luminary Jim Gillogly was able to visit Krypto in person in November of 1999 and took these numerous high-quality pictures.

Elonka's Kryptos site

http://elonka.com/kryptos: Elonka has similar links, and some of her own pictures, rubbings and decryption techniques.

Maps and Air Photos

Plot of coordinates mentioned in Part 3 (38° 57' 6.5"N, 77° 8' 44"W, Decimal 38.9518056°N, 77.1455556°W)

USGS 1:25,000 DRG Topo map from TopoZone (plotted using NAD27 datum).
Cross marker in front of CIA building is the designated coordinate.
Building outline is old (pre-1991, pre-Kryptos build-out).

Color airphoto from MapQuest, very high-res. Newer image, shows later building additions when Kryptos was added.
MapQuest will not plot a marker point on the airphoto, but it would fall somewhere in the green courtyard between the two new buildings.

Monochrome image from USGS, 8m resolution. new enough (1998) to show new buildngs, too coarse to show detail. no marker plotted on original image.

Discussion Group

Kryptos YahooGroup: People working on cracking part 4 (and any further parts!) of Kryptos

Crack the CIA's Secret Code

ABCNews: Relates David Stein's successful partial decryption of Kryptos.
Includes some recovered plaintext.

C.I.A.'s Artistic Enigma Yields All but Final Clue

New York Times Article 6/16/99 John Markoff relates Jim Gillogly's successful partial decryption of Kryptos.
Includes all currently-recovered plaintext.

Kryptos Photo

Kryptos Sculpture from CIA's Picture Tour.

Scheidt Bio

[Link Updated]Bio/Dossier of Ed Scheidt, cryptographer of Kryptos.

Sci.Crypt Messages

Several sci.crypt messages relating to Gillogly's partial decryption.
[Links updated to Google Groups Nov 2010, courtesy of Jim Gillogly])

Cyrillic Projector

Descriptions of another Jim Sanborn sculpture courtesy of [Link Dead]University of North Carolina at Charlotte and [Link Dead]The Raleigh, N.C. News & Observer

Kryptos Ciphertext with Code Groups

Kryptos Ciphertext in 5-letter code group form. May or may not be helpful.

Kryptos Ciphertext with Vignere Table

Document including text of Kryptos Ciphertext, Kryptos Vignere Table and some possible hints and tips.

Recovered Plaintext Sections

Three parts of Kryptos have been decrypted so far.
Note: The word "iqlusion" in part one, "undergruund" in part two and "desparatly" in part three are not transcription mistakes. This is how they are actually encoded in Kryptos.
  • Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.
  • It was totally invisible.
    How's that possible? They used the earth's magnetic field. x The information was gathered and transmitted undergruund to an unknown location. x Does Langley know about this? They should: it's 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. ID by rows.
  • 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?

Final Challenge

The final remaining section (97 characters) of Kryptos begins with the letters OBKR.

Bogus Solution

Laughable [Link dead]Purported Solution of Kryptos

Google Search

Search Google for topics possibly relating to Kryptos.

Copyright 2003 by Chris 'Xenon' Hanson. This page does not reflect the opinions or views of 3D Nature.