Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is it possible for the public to visit CIA Headquarters in order to see Kryptos? The short answer to this is, "No," especially with the recent increase in security caused by the events of September 11th. The FAQ on the CIA website, in answer to this question, refers the public to a section of the website called the CIA Virtual Tour with pictures of various locations around the property. If you try to just drive up to the gate and ask for a tour (as some of the members of the Kryptos Group have done), you will be turned away by large men with guns who will politely but firmly tell you that access is for those with "Official Business" only. If you'd like to try and ask for a tour anyway, you should work through the CIA's Public Affairs office. Q: I work at CIA, or I have a friend/cousin/goldfish who visits CIA sometimes. Is there something we could check on for you? Yes! Please check the CIAWishList for details. Q: I'm going to be visiting Washington DC soon, can I help with any research? Yes! Please stop by the Zola Spy Restaurant (next door to the new Spy Museum). Kryptos sculptor Jim Sanborn designed several elements of the restaurant's decor, and it's possible that some parts may give us clues towards Kryptos. For example, there's a "classified document wall" in the restaurant, with dozens of classified documents in English, Russian, and French from Sanborn's collection. We're trying to get closeup photographs of as many of those documents as possible. Q: What does Kryptos have to do with the bestseller The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown? Dan Brown is a big fan of cryptology, and has long been intrigued by Kryptos. When he published his book, he hid some puzzles within the artwork of the bookjacket. Two of those puzzles refer to Kryptos. You can learn more about him, the book, and the puzzles by going to http://www.danbrown.com and clicking on "Secrets". For example, if you hold the backcover of the original U.S. version of the book up to a mirror and look very closely at the part near the Crais quote, you can faintly see the coordinates 37?57' 6.5" N 77?8' 44" W on one side (it's light red on dark red, so is hard to see). These are a clue to the coordinates in the deciphered text of part 2 of Kryptos, which are 38?57' 6.5" N 77?8' 44" W. We don't know why the book says 37 and Kryptos says 38, although when Dan Brown was asked, he replied, "This discrepancy is intentional." Another puzzle is on the backcover in the artwork of the brown "tear". In very faint script, upside-down, it is possible to make out the words "only WW knows." In Fall 2003, Brown's webpage was also including questions about Kryptos as part of a contest challenge, such as to refer to Kryptos and "the one who knows the exact location", the initials WW, a link between "King Tut" and the CIA, and the latitude and longitude coordinates. These are references to the decrypted text of parts 2 and 3 of the Kryptos sculpture. In January 2004, it was announced that hundreds of thousands of people had participated in the challenge on Brown's site, and that 40,000 people had completed it. Q: If I solved Kryptos, how would I announce it? In such cases, it's usually best to get another cryptologist to verify your solution technique before making a public announcement. If you want to "timestamp" your solution, you should send an email to a mailing list such as sci.crypt or the Kryptos Group, or to both of the Kryptos Group moderators (and anyone else you trust) with a small amount of information that gives some proof that you solved it, but without giving everything away. For example, you could say, "I've solved part 4. The first half of the plaintext says, 'Four score and twenty years.'" Then, you can communicate with people about the details of the system, but you'll still have the credit for the solution since no one else will be able to come up with the second half of the message until after you've told them how you did it. Once your method has been verified, the Kryptos Group will be happy to assist you with the drafting