In The Middle Of The CIA’s Headquarters Sits A Mysterious Sculpture That Contains A Secret Code
In the middle of the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters sits a mysterious sculpture called “Kryptos” that contains a secret code.
For decades, it has stumped experts. So far, three of the coded messages have been deciphered, but one is still unsolved.
Kryptos was created by artist Jim Sanborn and installed in the courtyard outside of the CIA’s headquarters building in 1990.
The large, wavy copper sculpture measures 12 feet tall and 20 feet wide. It consists of 1,800 letters that seem random. However, four distinct messages that form a riddle are embedded within the characters.
Over thirty years later, one of the codes has still not been cracked, making it one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in the world.
In recent years, Sanborn has provided hints as to what the fourth message might be, but no one has figured it out yet.
Sanborn did not have experience writing code before he created Kryptos. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College with a double major in sociology and art history in 1969.
Two years later, he received his master’s degree in sculpture from Pratt Institute. His works have been featured in several well-known museums, such as the High Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
With some guidance from Edward Scheidt, a retired CIA expert in cryptology and encryption, Sanborn developed a series of encoded messages using patterns, matrixes, and other techniques.
Gorodenkoff – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
It took about eight years for someone to finally solve part of the message. In 1998, David Stein, a CIA physicist, announced that he had solved the first three passages.
Sanborn had left in some spelling errors and a few extra characters as a way of throwing people off. The first passage reads, “Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion.”
The second message also had a misspelling. It shared the latitude and longitude coordinates for the CIA, suggesting that something is buried there, and references WW, otherwise known as former CIA director William H. Webster, the only other person besides Sanborn who had the answers to the sculpture’s encrypted messages.
The third passage alludes to the archaeologist Howard Carter, the man who opened the door to King Tut’s tomb.
According to Sanborn, the mystery of Kryptos has lasted much longer than he expected. He initially assumed that the first three messages would be cracked in just a few years while the fourth would be solved within a decade.
Over the years, he has offered clues to codebreakers for the fourth puzzle. In 2010, he revealed a single word, “Berlin.” In 2014, it was “Clock.”
Finally, in 2020, the last clue he will ever give out was “Northeast.” Since then, the puzzle remains something of an enigma.
Sanborn is now in his mid-70s. It is possible that the mystery of Kryptos will persist after he is gone.
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