Final clue for ‘mystery message’ carving left at CIA HQ 30 years ago revealed – can you crack the code?

A coded message has sat outside the CIA headquarters since it opened. Now its sculptor has revealed the final clue to help solve it.

The final clue to a coded message plonked outside the CIA building 30 years ago has been revealed by the code’s creator.

Artist Jim Sanborn built the copper sculpture, known as Kryptos, in a courtyard at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in 1990.

It’s made up of four passages, three of which have been solved by code breakers. However, the fourth and final passage has yet to be cracked.

Sanborn, now 74, has already handed out two clues to help push puzzlers towards a solution.

He’s now released what he says is the third and final clue for the segment, reports The New York Times.

It is a word: “Northeast”. Read more about the quest to solve the puzzle below.

THREE SOLVED SEGMENTS

The Kryptos sculpture at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Picture: Jim Sanborn / CC BY-SA 3.0

Sanborn worked with retired CIA cryptographer Edward Scheidt to create the puzzle.

Each passage of text follows a theme of concealment and discovery, each more fiendishly tricky to unravel than the last.

The first reads: “BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION.”

The last word, “illusion”, was misspelled on purpose to make the puzzle harder, according to Sanborn.

The location of CIA headquarters by latitude and longitude is included in the second puzzle.

It asks: “DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS? THEY SHOULD: IT’S BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE. X WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION? ONLY WW.”

The “WW” is a reference to William Webster, who was CIA boss when the sculpture was put in place.

Sanborn handed him a key for deciphering the messages.

The third solved clue paraphrases British Egyptologist Howard Carter’s account of opening King Tut’s tomb in 1925.

The text reads: “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”.

Again, spelling and punctuation errors were added in to make the puzzle harder.

THE FINAL CLUE

A man walks across the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency at its headquarters in Langley Virginia Picture: Saul Loeb / AFP

The final segment remains unsolved and is a jumble of letters awaiting decryption.

“OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVNORTHEASTOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBBERLINCLOCKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR”.

Until recently, Sanborn had provided two clues in the form of words that appear in the decrypted text.

In 2010, he revealed the word “BERLIN” appeared in the 64th through 69th positions in the final passage.

Four years later, he disclosed that the word “CLOCK” made up the next five letters.

Now, Sanborn has revealed the word “NORTHEAST” appears at positions 26 through 34.

Sanborn has set up an email system through which puzzle fiends can submit solutions – though it costs $50 a pop.

The 74-year-old told the Times he wasn’t sure the puzzle would be solved before his death.

“For the past few years I have been trying to figure out how to have this ‘system’ survive my death,” Sanborn said. “It has not been easy.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Final clue for ‘mystery message’ carving left at CIA HQ 30 years ago revealed – can you crack the code?