Kryptos: The Sanborn Sculpture at CIA Headquarters
** John's Kryptos Details **

Kryptos is a sculpture / encrypted puzzle located at CIA headquarters in Langley, VA. It was designed by sculptor James Sanborn and CIA cryptographer Edward M. Scheidt. It has withstood scrutiny for many years, and only in the late 90's gave up some of its secrets. However, part 4 has remained a mystery, refusing to give up... till now...
John B. Wilson found the initial metaphorical solution to Section 4 on Sept 5, 2003, and details have been emerging ever since.
Below are the various details concerning the Kryptos sculpture:  Have fun!
The following list is in alpha-numerical order.

?:
The [ ? ] between sections 3 and 4 could be the doorway to the crypt, referred to by the Howard Carter account of Sec. 3. The X-->Q-->? light rays point to it. It is the 337th char of section 3.

1st Kryptos Decryption - K1:
[ BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION ]
--Uses Vigenère decryption with keywords of KRYPTOS and PALIMPSEST--
This poem could be a reference to the altered wording of Sec. 3, and how it could be used as instructions.


2nd Kryptos Decryption - K2
HardCoded Version on Sculpture:
[ 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 W_W 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 ROW_S ]

Corrected Version *Sanborn Apr 19, 2006*
[ 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 W_W 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 ]

--Uses Vigenère decryption with keywords of KRYPTOS and ABSCISSA--
*Note* On Apr 19, 2006, Sanborn went through some of his notes and saw that well-known K2 solution had the wrong ending (ID BY ROW_S).  He informed Elonka that one of the X's that appear in the K2 plaintext was missing after the word WEST.  By simply inserting the extra character (S in CT, which leads to X in PT), the correct ending is revealed (X LAYER TWO).  That one gets sensible text from the omission is quite a coincidence for Vigenere encryption. It has been speculated that this is related to a duress cipher.


3rd Kryptos Decryption - K3:
[ 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 (?) ]
--Uses modulus transposition decryption, [decrypted=(192*encrypted+192-1) mod 337]--
--Alternately, uses row-column transposition with KRYPTOS as a numeric key to the row ordering--

from Carter's paraphrased quote in "The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen": the (*...*) indicate changes found in Kryptos Sec. 3
Slowly, (*desparatly*)/desperately slowly it seemed to us as we watched, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the doorway (*was*)/were removed, until at last we had the whole door clear before us. The decisive moment had arrived. With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner. Darkness and blank space, as far as an iron testing-rod could reach, showed that whatever lay beyond was empty, and not filled like the passage we had just cleared. Candle tests were applied as a precaution against possible foul gases, and then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber (*caused*)/causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment - an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by - I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnavon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, '(*X*) Can you see anything (*Q*) ?' it was all I could do to get out the words, 'Yes. Wonderful things.' Then widening the hole a little further, so that we both could see, we inserted an electric torch.

Notice that the word candle has been "cut out" of the diary entry (abscissa concept). It needs to be re-inserted in Sec. 4 (palimpsest concept). see Candle...
Since the poem in Sec. 1 refers to "Absence of Light", the fact that CANDLE is missing is very interesting.
The Covert Operations Fragment - Zola decodes to an almost word for word copy of Carter's quote, without all the editing and selection of various sections - see Zola


4th Krytos Decryption - K4:
In my opinion, a "virtual" crypt & "digital" hieroglyphic scroll which mirrors the outside structure. It is found by following the account of Sec.3 as metaphorical instructions for Sec.4. This interactively turns Kryptos into a digital palimpsest. Once the instructions are completed, you get the question "Can you see anything?", and certain words become visible, such as THREE COFFINS, EGYPT, TUT, GOLD, ANUBIS, etc. Further analysis seems to indicate that all of Sec.4 could be a digital hieroglyphic scroll as well.
See [ John's KRYPTOS Part-4 Solution ]--Uses metaphorical decryption + virtual cipher wheel with keywords of KRYPTOS and CANDLE and MIST--

From a few pages further in "The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen": Surely never before in the whole history of excavation had such an amazing sight been seen as the light of our torch revealed to us... Let him [the reader, or in this case, the decrypter] imagine how they appeared to us as we looked down upon them from our spy-hole in the blocked doorway, casting the beam of light from our torch -- the first light that had pierced the darkness of the chamber for three thousand years -- from one group of objects to another, in a vain attempt to interpret the treasure that lay before us.


0362514:
Alphabetic scramble of Kryptos gives KOPRSTY=0123456 --> KRYPTOS=0362514, which is the correct ordering of rows for a ( 7 row * 48 column ) row-column transpose decryption of section 3.  Interestingly, this is also (3n) mod 7.

13 feet:
The distance below ground of Tut's tomb.

16 Steps:
The number of steps that Howard Carter traversed to reach the inner door of Tut's tomb. Also, in the metaphorical K4 solution, the number of steps between the "H", at the outer passageway opening of the superscript letters, and the "C" of the inserted CANDLE, at the inner tomb opening.  H-C, Howard Carter. Also, as noted by DAW in Apr. 2005, if you start at the first letter of the PT, the B in BETWEEN, then there are 16 diagonal steps to the D in DOORWAY in sec.3 of the Kryptos sculpture. Thanks for pointing this out DAW. Since the line lengths of the sculpture are arbitrary from an encoding standpoint, the observed line lengths were chosen by Sanborn based on some other criteria. Once more, this seems to confirm that Kryptos is meant to be interpreted metaphorically.

(3/4-Nov-1922) & (3 Nov 1990):
The date the top stair of the passageway to Tut's tomb was discovered in 1922, either late on the 3rd or early morning on the 4th, & the date that the Kryptos sculpture was dedicated at the CIA headquarters 3 Nov 1990...  The indented chars start at position 3, and the raised chars start at position 4 in Sec. 3 of Kryptos.

(26-Nov-1922) or (26-11-1922):
The date that the inner door of the Tomb of Tutankhamen was opened by Howard Carter.
These numbers could be clues to the decryption of sections 3 and  4. If you were Howard Carter on that date, then you would be standing next to the ?-doorway. You would be on column 26 on bottom row 11, i.e. Nov 26. Also, section 3  is decrypted with modulus transpose increment of 192 and start character of 192: 192 twice -> 192:2 -> 1922.  The M-94 cipher was also implemented in 1922.

27 feet:
The length of the passage to King Tut's tomb.  The ?-doorway is at position 27.

1922:
The year of King Tut's Tomb discovery and the year of the introduction of the US "M-94" cipher wheel encryption scheme, a version of which is used in the metaphorical decoding of Sec. 4 of Kryptos, the virtual crypt of King Tut.  see Cipher Wheel...

( 38°, 57', 6.5" N ) x ( 77°, 8', 44" W ):
Approximate GPS coordinates of the Kryptos sculpture, or someplace quite close by. Comes from the last part of the Sec.2 Secret Message. I believe that this is meant to be the coordinates of Kryptos itself.  I think it unusual that Sanborn used a decimal (6.5) in the North coords but not in the West coords.

( 9L, 4L, 17R ):
The "matrix" shifts (L=left, R=right) necessary to vertically line up the word MIST in the section 4 metaphorical decryption, and be able to "See Anything", according to the section 3 instructions. With word wrapping, this gives (9L, 4L, 14L) or (22R, 27R, 17R) or any combination of the three values, depending on whether you shift and wrap left or right. Ex. (22R = 31 - 9L). Words such as THREE COFFINS, EGYPT, TUT, GOLD, ANUBIS, etc. become visible.  Additionally, the bottom two rows get shifted such that an XQ gets placed at one end of the light ray path, and the row above gets shifted such that the SOS message is placed next to the tiny breach, mirroring the real structure.

ABSCISSA:
The keyword for solving section 2. It means "the X-coordinate", and also has a root which means to "cut away". It can be used to help identify the ?-doorway of section 4, and the fact that you have to "cut away" part of the text to insert the CANDLE. It is used as the X-coordinate by locating the ?-doorway at position 27, and Tut's real tomb had a 27' long passageway.  There are 25 "pauses" in transmission in the Morse Code phrases, or 25 bits of "dead air" to use transmission jargon.  The AIR of the part 4 solution is at position 25. The indented/raised letters start at position 3-4. The top of the stairway to the passage of the tomb was discovered on November 3-4. Interestingly, Kryptos was dedicated on November 3 also, in 1990. The letters for "CIA" are contained in ABSCISSA as well. ABSCISSA cut away concepts - Passage cleared in early Nov, Tiny breach made at position 27, AIR escapes from position 25.

AIR:
The "AIR" has to escape from the chamber to decode part 4.  It can be found vertically directly under the inserted CANDLE. It does "escape" when the word MIST is formed. see Dead AIR and 4th Kryptos Decryption...

Altered wording:
The section 3 decryption of Kryptos gives a paraphrased account of the opening of King Tut's tomb. However, the exact wording is slightly altered from the original version, some words missing, some added, and some changed or modified (causing->caused, desperately->desparatly). The decryption of the Zola Spy Restaurant "Covert Operations Fragment" is also from the same account, with even more of the text, but again with slightly altered wording. It is my belief that this was intentional in both cases, and was used to place suggestive words in the encrypted form of the texts, i.e. "DINE" at the start of Zola, since it is in a restaurant and Sanborn does "site-specific" work. For an example of how this kind of "multi-layer/dual-purpose" encryption could work, see John's "Ulterior Motives" encryption at the bottom of: John's KRYPTOS Simulator
see 3rd Decryption and Zola Spy Restaurant for the analysis of the altered wording...

"Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to the Myths, Religions, Pyramids, and Temples of the Land of the Pharaohs", by Lorna Oakes & Lucia Gahlin:
A "source" book. The section on "The Discovery of King Tut's Tomb" could be a source document for sections 3 and 4 of Kryptos. This is a copy from an earlier book, as it has been reprinted many times.  The original document for the actual text of K3 and Zola now appears to be The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen by Howard Carter and A.C. Mace.
See Source Document...

Antipodes Sculpture at Hirshhorn Museum:
Very interesting Sanborn sculpture, it contains both Kryptos and the Cyrillic Projector, presumably as "Antipodes", or polar opposites.  Since the keyword for the Cyrillic Projector is "TEHb", Russian for "shade, shadow", it seems reasonable that one of the keywords for Kryptos will be "light" or something related to light, like "CANDLE".  Also, the CP itself is lighted from the inside while it is dark on the outside.  Kryptos, metaphorically, is dark on the inside and needs a light to shine in to solve it. Another idea, the clueword on the Cyrillic Projector is "MEDUSA", the mythological Greek monster.  If you met the gaze of the Medusa, you would become petrified, or turned to stone. Now, consider the dynamically opposite situation, reversing the viewpoint for Kryptos. We trace our gaze into the virtual crypt and see the petrified mummy of King Tut. Also, the word Medusa means "queen", the polar opposite of a "king". Also, I find it interesting that the 2nd message of the Cyrillic Projector starts with one of the Cyrillic W's, which is at the very end of the last line of the 1st message; why not start it on a new line? Hirshhorn Antipodes/Covert Balance pics & info here. 
Note that a "tiny breach", the extra space, is positioned just to the NE of "RQ", perhaps referring to the Morse code message.
Also, SSO has been placed under the ? in both places. This is next to where the ?="tiny breach" is.
By correctly coding the word for UNDERGROUND in Antipodes, not UNDERGRUUND as in Kryptos, the coding letters CETB are now an anagram for CBET, the Russian word for "light".
This sequence is immediately after a "Q" - Again, we a need a light for the "underground illusion".
|VIDXFLGGTEZ?FKZBS.F.DQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF|
|ACTLOCATION?ONLYW.W.THISWASHISLASTMES|
|1234567890123456789012345678901234567|
John's Antipodes page.


Also, PJ of the Kryptos group found this interesting reference
=========================================
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 03:55:32 -0000
From: "pj_maloney" <pj_maloneyatyahoo.com>
Subject: Antipodes - historic reference

When Lewis and Clark were preparing for their historic journey, Thomas
Jefferson provided Meriwether Lewis with an encryption system which
was essentially a Vigenere table. The agreed-upon keyword was
'artichoke' but in his letter to Lewis, Jefferson described the system
and provided an example using the keyword 'antipodes.' 

That Sanborn titled his sculpture 'Antipodes' is either an incredible
coincidence or the man really does his homework. I suspect the latter.

And maybe it's a clue.

Nifty image of the note:
http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2222#
=================================================
See also "Untitled" Kryptos Sculpture and Cyrillic Projector...

Anomalous features / Minutia:
It seems that several of Sanborn's encoded sculptures have strange, anomalous features, which may be clues to their decryptions:
Kryptos - indented letters with 3 superscript characters (YA_R) + 1 additional letter (L) + other parts of courtyard (Morse Code, compass, etc.)
Cyrillic Projector - Extra bolt centered on MEDUSA line
Antipodes/Covert Balance/Untitled - 2 holes/dots near center of Kryptos section & a extra space
Zola Spy Covert Ops Frag - Repeated letters on right edge of right-side fragment

Superscript letters YAR on K3 of Kryptos


Extra bolt of the "MEDUSA" line of the Cyrillic Projector




Covert Operations Fragment -Zola Spy Restaurant
DINEHYODTTSATEOSL|NSSEBDBHRTSODUL L
EGTTPECLEEHTFESOAT|PSAYOAUMEWTBAW W
NHOWSOUNPBDEHRSLD|ESESNLKPLEHEIWY Y
PHSRADDSEICADSEDE|OIEGWRPRNIDOTWE E
ELBAEAEALGSTOHASR|ELPWSACEHIHRATP P
EAEPEECEFAVEWTCED|LFLHMHATNEWAEHR
IIOIAPSSHDMHYNEAN|TUEDTHFASOOWCDT T
ITLDJYOANIMLEUTECL|GAUAWRDMEERMHL L
OEASSNEACANDEBEYU|ISATDDSODTORERS SS
LIEPCNTAREHOERELD|NSRLOHNNAARMEMO O
SSAEETAIETDCODAWE|ENCAFTRRIALVTIL LLL
ERDARIWODNREEHNY|NTTUELHNAYRADESI II
OEHTDLATRBIRULOTT|DEICETEKRVBNOFS SS
HTNOADESNEEETWPEI|HWNNLVTEADFIEAE EE
NEIADIEISCWOLRSMGC|DGLKRNSHIRAPSE EE
XAEAEELGAITETAADX|NNITTARNNHULRGT T

Extra dots and extra space on Antipodes Sculpture




Some of these could be a signature of sorts:

It has been noted, I forget by who, that the corresponding letters on the Vigenere side are I,J,M, or anagram of JIM, for Jim Sanborn.
EN D^YAH^R OHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA | NGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL

Likewise, the Extra Bolt (*)on the Cyrillic Projector is also next to the Cyrillic letters ЛМ, which looks like "J I M"
*ХМЖЛСПРЧУЛЭШЖЫИИMEDUSAИНХЕЗЛЧЗРЗЙКЛ | КЛМОПРСУФХШЦЧЩЪЫЭЮЯТЕНЬАБВГДЖЗИЙКЛМ*



"ARID":
The letters to make the anagram "arid" appear when the "CANDLE" is inserted into the tiny breach.  This would be "arid air", or "hot air", which is in agreement with the Sec. 3 decryption of Howard Carter opening the tomb and the "HOT AIR ESCAPING...".  The "ARID" anagram was noticed by DAW of the Kryptos group.

Art of the Quest:
see Invisible Forces and the Art of the Quest and The Mummy Room...

Buried items:
There is a reference to something "buried out there somewhere" in the K2 secret message. There could also be at least 3 references to something buried from the section 4 decryption.  The 1st reference is the CT word "DIG" on the bottom line of K4, under the symbolic lodestone and compass.  The 2nd reference is the word "DIG" which appears under a symbolic pyramid after the decryption process. The 3rd reference are the letters for DIG in the "RA IS BELoW GRUUND" message in the double letter MIST decryption.

CANDLE:
The keyword for metaphorically solving section 4. Notice that the word "candle" has been "cut away" from the text of decrypted section 3, the Howard Carter diary entry. The candle must be re-"inserted" into the ?-doorway, in order to decrypt section 4. This interactively turns Kryptos into a palimpsest. The word "CANDLE" is inserted at the location of the "tiny breach" which is made in the ?-doorway. It is also found using the symbolic RQ compass.

Carter, Howard:
The man who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. The inner doorway was opened on 26-Nov-1922. Carter recorded the opening in his diary, which is now famous.

CIA-Central Intelligence Agency:
The Kryptos sculpture is located in the inner garden courtyard of the CIA Headquarters Building.  There are also references to the CIA within Kryptos, 1st from the Langley reference and GPS coordinates of Sec. 2 and possibly from the "Shadow Forces" Morse code message.  Likewise, the Cyrillic Projector refers to the Russian counterpart agency, the KGB.  The CIA grew out of a predecessor agency, the OSS. See also OSS...

Cipher Wheel-Cylinder / Bazeries Cylinder / US "M-94" Cipher Machine:
Section 4 of Kryptos uses the concept of a cipher wheel/cylinder in the final step, "details emerging from the MIST".  The US "M-94" cipher machine, based on the Bazeries Cylinder, itself based on a cipher cylinder (or wheel cipher) invented by American President Thomas Jefferson, was introduced in 1922, the year of the opening of Tut's tomb, and was used by the Army, Coast Guard, and Radio Intelligence Division of the Federal Communications Commission until early in World War II.  Please note the parallels of CIA, Morse Code, SOS + RQ, and "Only WW knows", as well as the rest of the Sec. 2 secret message.  Interestingly, there are (2) "TJ"="Thomas Jefferson"? strings next to each other in Sec. 4.  Also, the only letter "M" in Kryptos Sec.4 is at position 94 if read Right-to-Left, similarly to Hieroglyphics. The keyword, using this "M", and the K3 clue, is "MIST", and the bottom 4 rows must be "rotated" like a cipher cylinder.  This puts the "T" of MIST at the "T is your position" metaphorical observation point.

Clues for following sections:
There are hidden clues in each section for the decryption of the following section.
K0) The sculpture itself resembles an ancient scroll. This leads to the keyword PALIMPSEST.
K1) The 1st letters of the poem contain a reference to the keyword ABSCISSA.
K2) There is the specific quote in the secret message, "ID by ROW_S". Also, the 1st letters of the secret message give several references to "Tut".
K3) The account by Howard Carter is "instructions" to be followed to decrypt section 4.
K4) The decryption gives a symbolic/metaphorical tomb/crypt and digital hieroglyphic scroll.

Code/Cipher Algorithms:
Kryptos uses several types of codes
K0) Morse code
K1) Vigenère
K2) Vigenère
K3) Modular Transposition (also can be done with equivalent Row-Column transposition)
K4) Metaphorical (employing also a version of M-94 cipher cylinder / cipher wheel)

Code Room 1990, Covert Obsolescence exhibit:
In the Code Room 1990 piece of the Covert Obsolescence exhibit, there is a "half-high" version of the Kryptos Vigenere tableau, in the form of an almost complete cylinder, lighted from the inside. There is a single break in the cylinder, a "tiny breach" that allows light to shine through onto a standing piece of petrified wood. I believe that this represents the idea that a light source must be inserted into a "tiny breach" of the real Kryptos sculpture, and that it will shine onto the tomb of the "petrified" mummy, King Tut. Oddly, the lines of text appear to be staggered on opposite sides of the sculpture.  I was told by Sanborn that this was from the actual Kryptos sculpture before it was installed at the CIA location.
Picture here.

COFFINS, EGYPT, GOLD, and TUT:
The first words that "jump out at you" when the proper shifting of rows is done in section 4.  See Details...

Common Themes:
see Related Sculptures...

Compass & Lodestone:
There is an inscribed compass and actual lodestone on one of the large granite slabs at the front entrance, the one on the south side of the walkway. The lodestone is apparently "attracting" the needle of the compass. The compass stone has the south point of the needle pointing approximately 15-30 degrees North of East, which is approximately the correct direction to go to make a great circle journey from the Kryptos Sculpture to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, where Tut's real tomb/crypt is. There is also a symbolic (RRQQ) version of this compass & lodestone in section 4 of the encrypted text. See Symbolic Compass...

Coordinates:
( 38°, 57', 6.5" N ) x ( 77°, 8', 44" W ) Approximate GPS coordinates of the Kryptos sculpture itself, or someplace quite close by. Comes from the last part of the Sec.2 Secret Message. My own thought is that it means that the buried thing is King Tut and he is "encrypted" in the Kryptos sculpture. The exact wording of the coordinates could also be used to "fix-up" the spacings and positionings in this section. Since the coordinates are not exactly on top of the sculpture, some others think that there is something buried at the exact GPS location. However, they never seem to point out that while the coordinates are only a few feet N to S, they are many yards E to W. see also Dan Brown

Copper-plate:
The Morse code phrase are cut into thin slabs of "aged" copper-plate, which rests on the "outline" sections of the 2nd layer of some of the granite slabs.

Covert Balance Sculpture:
See "Untitled" Kryptos Sculpture...

Covert Operations Fragments:
Sanborn has a number of pulped-paper pieces that he collectively calls the Covert Operations Fragments.  They are all similar in style and structure, but with differing languages.
John's Covert Ops Fragment - English page | John's Covert Ops Fragment - Cyrillic page | John's Covert Ops Fragment - Zola page
Known pieces are:
Arabic: Currently Undeciphered
Cyrillic: Currently Undeciphered
English:  
  Large - Deciphered by John B. Wilson - Sept 2005 - DoubleKeyVigenere (keywords: Kryptos & Deceit)  ** Yours Truly **
  Small - Deciphered by John B. Wilson - Oct 2005 - Double Key Vigenère (keywords Kryptos & Shadow)  ** Yours Truly **
Zola Spy Restaurant: Deciphered by Keith Edkins - Dec 2003 - ModTrans

Below is the COF - English, Large

Now, the interesting thing is that there are interesting relations between these sculptures and Kryptos.  The Large English COF uses the keyword Kryptos, just like K1 and K2.  It also uses the keyword Deceit, which is one of the words from Sanborn's Filter Media Exhibition.  The Small English COF uses the keyword Kryptos, just like K1 and K2.  It also uses the keyword Shadow, which is one of the words from Sanborn's Filter Media Exhibition and also the Keyword for the CP.  The Zola Spy COF is another decoding of the Howard Carter Account, which also uses ModTrans (Modular Transposition) like K3.  I personally think that the CT "stand-out" words like "DINE" and "SATE" were intentional since this piece was made for a restaurant.

The interesting thing about COF Zola is that it decodes to another (slightly different) account of the Howard Carter diary/Tomb of Tut.Ankh.Amen account, just like K3 of Kryptos, also using Modular Transpostion decoding.

See Filter Media Exhibition...
See Zola Spy Restaurant...

"COW":
Frequency analysis of Sec. 1 reveals that only the letters C,O,W are not used in the Vigenere encryption.  If you look in Sec. 4, you will see a COW intersecting TWT at the W.  This could be a hint that TWT-->TUT is missing in the encryption, and can be found by decrypting Sec. 4. This is also hinted at in the Antipodes/Untitled sculpture.  In Egyptian mythology, it is the cow-headed goddess Hathor, who carries the dead to the underworld.  She is taking us from THEMIST to the tomb of TUT... R.I.P.  

Crypt / Krypt / Tomb:
Section 4 of Kryptos is a virtual crypt. "Kryptos qua crypt" = Kryptos, in the character of a crypt. The solution to section 4 is a metaphorical. Read the plaintext of section 3 as "instructions" to be carried out on section 4.

Cryptonomicon:
The Cryptonomicon, written by Neal Stephenson in 1999, has the words Palimpsest and Abscissa, within a paragraph or two of each other.  These are the only times that these two individual words appear within the entire novel, which is quite long.  It's an excellent read, by the way!  In any case, these are the keywords used in Kryptos K1 and K2.  Since Kryptos was installed in 1991, it is probably a nod by Stephenson to Sanborn.  Gillogy had solved K1 and K2 in 1999 as well, so perhaps Stephenson learned of it from there.  It is interesting to speculate whether Stephenson was the popular writer that Sanborn at one time said he had collaborated with, but that later he said he did not.

Cyrillic Projector, The:
Another one of James Sanborn encoded sculptures, this one in Cyrillic, with a light inside which projects "shadows" of light letters onto the walls and floor nearby at the UNCC campus in Charlotte, NC. Uses the KeyWord "TEHb", Russian for "shadow", and the ClueWord "MEDUSA". It is quite similar in structure to Kryptos, except that the metal panels form a complete cylinder rather than the "S"-shape of Kryptos. The Cyrillic Projector code was solved in Sept. 2003 by Elonka's international Kryptos group. The same Cyrillic code on The Cyrillic Projector can also be found on Antipodes and "Untitled Kryptos Piece". see Antipodes and Cyrillic Projector.
Interesting questions about the CP related to Kryptos:
Sanborn does not use the full Russian Cyrillic alphabet, the Cyrillic umlaut E is missing. Why?
Sanborn moved the Cyrillic W from its normal position, and placed it next to the Cyrillic X in the cipher-alphabet. Why?
Could this relate to the "X Can you see anything Q?" message in Kryptos, where the encoded form has the W (=decoded Q) next to the ?-doorway?
Why is the 2nd message starting with a Cyrillic W at the very end of the last line of the 1st message; why not start it on a new line?
Why is the clueword "MEDUSA", embedded with the Russian word "for"? Why not move it outside of the word, a single space over?
Could it refer to Kryptos part four (4)?
Why are there "16 steps" along the x-axis from the M in MEDUSA to the Cyrillic X at the start of the line?
Why are there "16 steps" along the x-axis from the M in MEDUSA to the initial Cyrillic W of 2nd message?
Sanborn put intentional errors in the Kryptos text, the {Q,U,A}.  Are the errors in the Cyrillic Projector also intentional?
There is an extra bolt on the MEDUSA line of the sculpture, between the M and X, that is out of spacing alignment with all the other bolts of the sculpture. Just to highlight the MEDUSA line? Or perhaps to point to MARX? Since the CP is right next to the Adam Smith Spinning Top sculpture, just outside of the Business Admin building of the UNCC campus, this seems likely.
Interestingly, the clueword "MEDUSA" means "queen", and may be a hint for "King" Tut of Kryptos, given that both texts appear on Antipodes=polar opposites.

Dalliance with Medusa:
A James Sanborn installation in a Baltimore, MD gallery in 1988, just prior to his Kryptos work.  The exhibit included the hull of a sunken Phoenician ship, petrified wood, an eclipsed sun, shark's tooth, metallic compass, ripple rock, fool's gold, etc.  The petrified wood and compass are possible links to Kryptos and Antipodes, while MEDUSA is of course the clueword to the Cyrillic Projector.

Da Vinci Code, The
Dan Brown:
The jacket/cover of the Dan Brown novel, The Da Vinci Code, has at least two references to Kryptos. On the back page, inside the "ripped" section there is the faint script "only ww knows", a reference to Sec. 2 of Kryptos. Also on the back page, on the vertical edge, are the coordinates written backwards:
37°, 57', 6.5" N and 77°, 8', 44" W. These are the same coordinates of Sec. 2 Kryptos, except that the North coordinate is less by one degree. Dan Brown has claimed that this was intentional. It seems likely that Dan Brown at least spoke with James Sanborn before putting these references in his book.

In addition, there are a number of intriguing parallels between the story and the solution of Kryptos. The heroes are searching for a treasure, which seems to be buried in an hidden underground chamber. There is a lot of detail and emphasis about the importance of the compass and compass rose. There are a number of different types of codes which have to be solved before getting to the final treasure. The "keystone" is basically a cipher wheel, just like the 4th section of Kryptos. The keystone turns out to be a multi-layered puzzle, like Kryptos. The main character, Robert Langdon, is a "symbologist", which is what is needed in the final interpretation of Kryptos. One of the main historical figures in the story is Sir Isaac Newton, a famous scientist who worked on the physics of light, among other things. This is very similar to the idea that Thomas Young, another famous scientist who worked with light, may be involved in the solution of section 4 of Kryptos. Perhaps my favorite was his multiple use of "Sangreal" as "San Greal-Holy Grail" and "Sang Real-Royal Blood". My belief is that there is multiple use of sections of the Kryptos code as well.

According to the author, Dan Brown, there is supposed to be another "Robert Langdon" adventure coming out (perhaps called The Solomon Key), this time set in Washington, DC, not too far from Kryptos. In a TV interview with Dan Brown, he states that the "only ww knows" is a piece of text off the Kryptos sculpture, and that the sculpture Kryptos refers to the "ancient mysteries".  He says also that some people have noted to him, tongue-in-cheek, that the ww's are an anagram/ambigram for the initials of Mary Magdalene, the biblical/historical figure discussed in The Da Vinci Code book.

And since Dan Brown likes and used ambigrams in his 1st Robert Langdon novel "Angels & Demons", here is my Kryptos ambigram.


Dead "AIR":
"Dead Air" is transmission jargon for a pause in communication or broadcast. see Morse Code Phrases...

Decrypted=(192*encrypted+192-1) mod 337:
The modulus transpose decryption of section 3. The modulus inverse which gives the encryption is e=(251*d+251-1) mod 337.

DESPARATLY:
The misspelled word of Section 3. The "A" is encoded to an "L", which perhaps refers to the extra "L", which points to the RAY, spelling L-RAY, or light ray, and thus giving the "Y" in KRYPTOS. "Desparatly" is also very close to "disparately", which means to do something step-by-step, perhaps as in the Sec. 3 instructions for decrypting Sec. 4

Details that emerge from the Mist...:
THREE COFFINS, EGYPT, TUT, GOLD, and more...  See Virtual Tomb...

"DIG":
Clue visible at the bottom middle of encoded section 4 "DIG", that the solution involves digging through the rubble to find the entrance to the part 4 crypt. see DIG-TALE INTERPRETATI-

"Digetal Interpretati-" / "Dig-Tale Interpretati-" Morse Code:
Clue that the solution involves "unending" digital interpretation or an unending Dig Tale. "Digetal" is also an anagram for "Dig-Tale", a reference to section 3 and 4. Also, related to the 2nd part of the Sec.2 secret message, "The information was gathered and transmitted..." As noted by Ken G. Lewis, it could also be "Interpret at U", or perhaps "Interpret at I".

"Doors" / DOORWAY:
There are 2 encoded "doors", one at the beginning of section 3, the partially indented D^YAH^R, and the other at the beginning of section 4, the DOHW?OBKR. The ? in the center of this "door" is the ?-doorway referred to by the Carter account of the opening of the tomb, and it is where you insert the CANDLE to solve section 4. The H's of these two "doors" may be the "seals" of the Necropolis inspectors that sealed Tut's tomb, both at the bottom and top of the passageway.
Necropolis Seal  Also, DAW pointed out that the PT DOORWAY of sec. 3 is 16 diagonal steps from the 1st letter in the sculpture. See 16 Steps...

Double-letters:
There appear to be several references to the importance of certain double-letter pairs. The first comes from the Misspelled words. Also, there are a statistically significant number of double letter pairs in section 4. These are later used to make a possible buried artifact message. Also, the symbolic compass is made from double-letter pairs, vertically RR, horizontally QQ, and diagonally VV, which resembles a "W".

Duress Codes:
Ed Scheidt  has brought up the idea of a duress code, a code in which the message outcome can be changed by the alteration of just a few characters.  This was mentioned shortly after Sanborn had mentioned that he had left out an 'X' in the K2 CT, (changing IDBYROWS to XLAYERTWO).  I am happy that my K4 solution still fits in with all the clues.  The word 'CANDLE' must be inserted for the code to work correctly in the metaphorical solution of K4.

Dunin, Elonka:
Crypto-mistress, gaming company founder, and co-founder of the Yahoo Kryptos group.  She has the most referenced website devoted to Kryptos and the other sculptures/artwork of James Sanborn. Her goal is to gather the talents of many people in the decoding of Kryptos Sec. 4, which is how she believes that it will be cracked. She also has the most referenced site to Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers. *Elonka Dunin's Excellent Kryptos Pages* , Elonka's list of Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers

Edward M. Scheidt:
see Scheidt, Edward

Egyptology / Egyptian Mythology:
Egyptology is definitely related to the Howard Carter quote of Sec. 3. It appears as if Egyptian mythology may be used in the final solution to Kryptos, by regarding Sec. 4 as a digital hieroglyphic scroll. see Hieroglyphs

Encrypted=(251*decrypted+251-1) mod 337:
The modulus transpose encryption of section K3 plaintext. This encryption is the only 1 of (337)²=113,569 which places the "HEAD" in the rubble blocking the passageway. See HEAD...

Encryption:
Interesting word - meaning to conceal words as in cipher encryption, but also the process of entombing the dead in a crypt.  I suggest that Kryptos is doing both, metaphorically and literally. King Tut has been "encrypted". Solving Kryptos recreates the act of discovery of the tomb, something that James Sanborn would find very appealing.

"EQUAL":
The various misspelled letters, Q,U,A,E,and the extra L are an anagram for EQUAL.  Perhaps a clue that the final solution is "equal" to the sculpture, a digital scroll? Anagram noticed by Nina from the Kryptos group.

Errors in spelling:
See QUA and Mispelled(sic) letters...

Extra letter "L":
There is an extra letter "L" on the tableau side of the Kryptos sculpture. It is on the top line of the bottom plate, on tableau row "N". This is the same row as the superscript letters "YA_R" on the cipher side. Reading backwards then gives L-RAY, or light-ray.  The extra "L" noted by Roger Anderson of the Kryptos Group.  see also Hill Cipher and L-RAY...

Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers:
Kryptos is near the top of list, although it may no longer fit into the "unsolved" category. see Elonka's list of Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers

Filter Media Exhibition:
Sanborn had a light filter/light projection exhibit in 1994.  It included various "revealing" words:
Inganno Deceit Filter (Italian: deceit)
Tromperie Deceit Filter (French: deceit)
Obmah Deceit Filter (Russian: deceit)
Falta Deceit Filter (Spanish: deceit)
Fallacia Deceit Filter (Latin: deceit)

These are interesting in that the word DECEIT was used as a keyword in the large English Covert Ops Fragment.
===
but more interestingly...
Kryptos Decoding Filter (Greek: hidden) -- Keyword used on Kryptos
CBET - Decoding Filter (Russian: light) -- Possible hint on Antipodes
Lux - Light, Mind Filter (Latin: light) -- Possible hint on Kryptos, also several light projectors called LUX
CBET - Light Filter (Russin: light)  -- Possible hint on Antipodes
Ombre - Shadow Filter (French: shadow)
TEHb - Shadow Filter (Russian: shadow)  -- ClueWord used on Cyrillic Projector
Minutia - Minutia Filter (English: small details) -- Possible hint on Kryptos,Antipodes,Cyrillic Project, since all seem to have minutia - see Anomalous Features
Inclinare, Aequus - Bias Filter (Latin: bias, unbaised)

The CBET filter is especially interesting. It is shaped like a lens with a crack in it, as if CBET (light) is the word needed to crack something...
The word SHADOW was used as a keyword in the small English COF.

First letters:
The 1st letters of the words of each section seem to give clues to the decryption of the next section.
K0) 1st letters of sculpture are "EM", a reference to ElectroMagnetism -> Light, used later
K1) 1st letters of poem --> ABSCISSA, the keyword for section 2
K2) 1st letters of secret message --> several references to Tut, clue to the Howard Carter account of section 3.
K3) 1st letters of Howard Carter account --> again references to Tut, implying that section 4 is a virtual crypt containing Tut.
K4) 1st letters are decoded to "THEMIST", from which the details will emerge...

Follow the Instructions:
Section 3 is the paraphrased account of Howard Carter's discovery and opening of King Tut's tomb.  Section 3 can be read metaphorically as instructions to carry out on the remainder of the Kryptos puzzle.  Doing so reveals the "virtual crypt" of King Tut in Section 4. Make a tiny breach means to remove the ?-doorway. Widen the hole means to remove more letters beside it.  Insert the candle means to place the word CANDLE in this slot. Shifting the bottom rows correctly allows the AIR to escape and for the MIST to rise to the "T is your position" observation point. It then asks: "Can you see anything?" The COFFINS of KING TUT of EGYPT are visible.

Gillogly, Jim
Computer programmer, former head of the ACA-American Cryptographic Assoc., made national news by becoming the first decoder (simultaneous with David Stein-CIA analyst) of the first 3 sections of Kryptos in the late 90's.  He was allowed onto CIA grounds to take pictures of the Kryptos sculpture as a prize. see Pictures

Granite slabs:
Secondary parts of the Kryptos sculpture. The two slab structures close to the sidewalk of the front entrance have Morse code messages cut into copper plate on the second level, and one of these slabs has a compass inscribed on top and a magnetic lodestone next to it on the second level. The lodestone appears to be "attracting" the compass needle. One other plate not to far from the compass is flat to the ground and appears to have a pyramid design on one corner.  The other two large slab structures are on either end of a small pond in the inner courtyard, not to far from the main Kryptos sculpture. In both places, the granite slabs are tilted so that they are embedded into the ground. These slabs may serve as "entrance portals" in both places. See pond...

"HEAD" in rubble blocking passageway:
"A painted wooden head of Tutankhamun emerging from a lotus flower was found among the rubble blocking the passage to the tomb. It shows Tutankhamun appearing as the sun god (Re) did at the time of creation from a lotus floating on the waters of the primordial ocean. It combines the idea of creation with the king's recreation." If you look at encoded Sec. 3, you can see this! Remember, W=U in Egyptian transliteration. There is the vertical word HEAD "blocking the passageway" in the D^YAH^R in the encoded version of section 3. This is a symbolic use of what is otherwise a straightforward code. There is also only one set modular transposition parameters out of more than 100,000 that does this. This symbolic/digital HEAD is next to the letters for "LOTUS" and "TUT", as well as "RE / RA". I believe that these letter placements were intentional, and part of a "dual-purpose" code by Sanborn. You can find this information referred to by a "source" document, Ancient Egypt - Lorna Oakes & Lucia Gahlin, which seems to describe many of the items in sections 3 and 4. Tut's Head emerging from Lotus
END^YAH^ROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA
CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE
TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE
WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE
TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR
EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB
...
see Altered Wording and Pond

Hieroglyphs:
The 4th section of Kryptos uses "digital hieroglyphs" to create a message. The interpretation of these hieroglyphs is potentially "unending", which explains why the "DIGETAL INTERPRETATI-cut" Morse code phrase got cut off.  It is "unending". This is probably the ultimate hidden mystery of the Kryptos sculpture, which Sanborn thought may never be completely solved. Hieroglyphs are usually read from right-to-left, but sometimes there are variations. Other good resources, esp. for Egyptology and hieroglyphs are:
www.virtual-egypt.com
*The Treasures of Tutankhamun*
The Theban Mapping Project

Hill Cipher:
The extra letter "L" on the Tableau side is part of the vertical word "HILL" on that edge of the sculpture text, which could be a reference to the Hill Cipher, which uses an NxN matrix (typically 2x2) of numbers on a N-gram of letters for encoding and decoding. The vertical word would not be "HILL" if the extra "L" was not there...  see Matrix

Hirshhorn Antipodes Sculpture:
See "Untitled" Kryptos Sculpture...

Howard Carter:
see Carter, Howard

Howard Carter's Diary:
Part 3 of Kryptos is a paraphrased account from Howard Carter's diary. The "original" text can be found in the "Ancient Egypt" source document.
See Source Document. see Howard Carter's diary: discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb - see Nov 26 entry

ID-by-Row(s):
A clue from section 2 secret message of Kryptos. Could mean ID-by-Rows, or ID-by-Row-"S", or ID-by-(compass)-"Rose". All 3 meanings seem to be used in different contexts. A strong one is noticing the jagged edges (rubble) over the smooth right edge (the tomb) of Sec. 4 - ID by Rows. Also, the compass "rose" is used to solve Sec.4, by referencing the symbolic RQ compass found in section 4, near the ?-doorway.
Also, could be ID-by-Rho-S --> ID by RS --> ID by Rosetta Stone.  see Letter "S"...
Also, could be ID-by-Rho-S --> ID by PS (since Rho is P in Greek) --> ID by Post Script, perhaps the Morse Code phrases? see Morse Code...
*Note* On Apr 19, 2006, Sanborn went through some of his notes and saw that well-known K2 solution had the wrong ending (ID BY ROW_S).  He informed Elonka that one of the X's that appear in the K2 plaintext was missing after the word WEST.  By simply inserting the extra character (S in CT, which leads to X in PT), the correct ending is revealed (X LAYER TWO).  That one gets sensible text from the omission is quite a coincidence for Vigenere encryption.
See "LAYER TWO"

Indented Letters/Out-of-Alignment Letters:
The letters near the beginning of Sec.3, D^YAH^R, are partially indented compared to the rest of the letters of the sculpture. This would appear to highlight that it is a "door". This was noted by John Wilson.

Invisible Forces and the Art of the Quest / The Mummy Room, 1983 - Sandstone and Egyptian mummy:
A James Sanborn exhibition ( 7' x 10' x 4' ) from 1983 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, containing (NFS compasses, lodestone, fool's gold, basalt, sandstone, theatrical lights, and the mummified corpse of Ti Ameny Net in a polychromed wooden case - Egyptian, 22nd Dynasty, on loan from the University of Richmond Ancient World Gallery Collection - ).  Apparently, the mummy was that of a lower rank Egyptian princess. The mummy has been X-rayed and CT scanned, but not unwrapped.  There is apparently a scroll in the lower portion of the wrappings that has never been opened - still inside the wrappings. I would like to know more about this exhibit if anyone has any information about it or pictures of it.  One source of info (from UVA-Richmond, the mummy's home) said that the display was quite dramatic and beautiful, but unfortunately he had no pictures. It seems relevant to the solution of Kryptos in my opinion.  Kryptos may be the "interactive" embodiment of this "quest" idea.  According to James Sanborn, "...I was very influenced by the natural sciences and had tremendous interest in archaeology and geology...  ...I employ natural objects and found objects and use them in large measure for their metaphorical content. For example, in 1983 I borrowed an Egyptian mummy from a university archaeology department and used it in an installation I did at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts...". see the Mummy Room...

IQLUSION:
The misspelled word of Section 1. Reference to the virtual tomb "illusion" of Section 4. The "Q" encodes to a "K" in KRYPTOS.  Iqlusion is phonetically very similar to "occlusion" - a blocked doorway...

Jagged Edges:
The first 3 sections all have a jagged right edge, while the 4th section has a smooth right edge.  This represents rubble covering a hidden tomb in the 4th section with smooth walls. It is hinted at by the ID-by-rows clue. The jagged edges have to be cosmetic, as the decryption methods of the first 3 sections do not require them.

James Sanborn:
see Sanborn, James

Jefferson, Thomas - American president:
There are a couple of possible links to American president Thomas Jefferson. He invented a cipher wheel cylinder , upon which the M-94 Cipher Cylinder is based.  He used a version of the Vigenere cipher when communicating with the Lewis & Clark expedition, with an example using "Antipodes" as the keyword.  see Antipodes, Cipher Wheel, M-94...

John's Kryptos Poem:
- Kryptos Unveiled -

Within a central hall of secrets found,
A hidden tomb of ancient kings stands bold,
Tis metal wave from tree of stone drawn forth,
A beam of light shall pass through glyphs of old,

Answers, virtually invisible,
Eluding the grasp of shadow forces,
But one with lucid memory shall find,
The way -- digital interpretation,
In lodestone's field, T is your position,

ReQuest compass, by CANDLE light the breach,
Can you see anything?, Look with Young eyes,
From X through Q, Ra's light will show the way,
That which was encrypted, let it be found.
...

(inspired by the quest to solve Kryptos)
JBW 2004-Feb/Mar

K0, K1, K2, K3, K4:
The shortcut names given to the different sections of the Kryptos sculpture by some of the cypto-solution hunters. I also call the Morse code segments and other stonework K0. K4 is the big prize!  The Cyrillic Projector could also be given shortcut names CP1 and CP2, since it has two separate sections.

Keywords / Keys:
There are various keywords used in the decryption of Kryptos.  Firstly, "KRYPTOS" itself is used in the first 2 sections as the keyword for the cipher-alphabet of the Vigenere table. It is used as a numerical key for the 3rd section. It is used as a metaphorical key for the 4th section. The first section uses a 2nd keyword of "PALIMPSEST", and the second section uses a 2nd keyword of "ABSCISSA".  The forth section uses a keyword of "CANDLE". Each of the keywords, along with the decoded text sections, can metaphorically pertain to the opening of Kryptos as a virtual crypt. Also, each of the keywords is "hidden" in a recoverable way at the sculpture. "KRYPTOS" is obvious. The entire sculpture appears as a scroll or "PALIMPSEST".  Examining 1st letters of the poem reveals "ABSCISSA".  The "CANDLE" comes from the Sec. 3 decryption, itself having the clue from "ID-BY-ROWS".

King Tutankhamen / King Tutankham_n / King Tut:
Referenced by section 3 of Kryptos, Howard Carter's account of the opening of King Tutankhamen's Tomb. Section 4 is his "virtual" tomb. Also referenced by the "Covert Operations Fragments" in the Zola Spy Restaurant, another encoded art piece by Sanborn. see Zola...
TUT-ANKH-AMEN or TUT-ANKH-AMON or TUT-ANKH-AMUN, since there seem to be alternate spellings

here is another version

King TUTANKHAMEN's royal Cartouche begins with his throne name, NEBKHEP(E)RURE.
One translation of the above is "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of Manifestations is Ra; Son of Ra, Living Image of Amen, Ruler of Upper Egyptian Heliopolis"


KRYPTOS:
The name of the sculpture and the keyword used in decrypting all four of the sections. Kryptos means "hidden" in Greek, as well as referring to cryptography and crypts. The word "KRYPTOS" is also encoded into the sculpture by means of the misspelled words and Morse code. Kryptos QUA crypt.

KV-62:
The code letters given to the Tomb of King Tutankhamen, in the Valley of the Kings, near Thebes, Egypt.

L-RAY:
Light ray. Comes from the odd superscript characters and extra letter on the top line of the bottom plate of Kryptos. It refers to the X->Q light rays used in pinpointing the ?-doorway location. Since it is written backwards, it perhaps is the first clue to reading things right-to-left, as in hieroglyphics. See X->Q light rays...

Langley, VA:
Home of the CIA Headquarters building. Location of the Kryptos sculpture. Referred to by the GPS coordinates, and by name, in the part 2 "secret message" of Kryptos.

LAYER TWO:
The new ending of K2 according to Sanborn (Apr. 19, 2006), so all of the speculation about ID-BY-ROW(S) is now suspect. If we regard "LAYER TWO" as meaning the bottom plate of the Kryptos sculpture, then I believe "LAYER TWO" refers to the Howard Carter account of K3, in which he uncovering the tomb of Tutankhamen, which was "buried" within the Kryptos sculpture.
Sanborn's explanation for the mistake is that he wanted the number of letters on the tableau side to equal the number of letters on the cipher side, so he had removed an 'X'.  This of course leads to obvious question of why would it be important for the number of letters to match, unless it is significant to the solution in some way...  However, this is still somewhat suspect, as the same "mistake" was made on Antipodes I believe, where the letter counts don't seem to matter...
*Note* On Apr 19, 2006, Sanborn went through some of his notes and saw that well-known K2 solution had the wrong ending (ID BY ROW_S).  He informed Elonka that one of the X's that appear in the K2 plaintext was missing after the word WEST.  By simply inserting the extra character (S in CT, which leads to X in PT), the correct ending is revealed (X LAYER TWO).  That one gets sensible text from the omission is quite a coincidence for Vigenere encryption.

Light & Shadow:
Sanborn/Scheidt have used the metaphorical ideas of light and shadow in the encryption of part 4, as well as in the overall Kryptos structure. There are a bunch of mysterious references to light. The use of c (light speed) in the ABSCISSA keyword hint, the L-RAY message, inserting a CANDLE, the X->Q light rays, Egyptian light god RA, the polar opposites clue of the Antipodes / Cyrillic Projector sculpture, the half-high Kryptos sculpture of the 1990 Code Room exhibit, etc. as well as a number of other "Light Projector" type sculptures.

Lodestone:
see Compass & Lodestone.

Look:
The vertically placed word "LOOK" can be found immediately following the "Can you see anything?" message (found by Patrick of the Kryptos group, I think...), if the decoded text is placed in the same layout as the encoded text, but before decoding section 4.  Also, beside this, you can make the letters for USE SYMBOLS!

"Lucid Memory" Morse Code:
One of the Morse code phrases at the front entrance. Possible reference to the need for a "light symbol". Also, related to the 4th part of the Sec.2 secret message, "Who knows the exact location..." Possible reference to Thomas Young, the linguist and scientist, who did experiments with light, optics, color vision, and eye-memory/persistence-of-vision. The human eye takes the equivalent of photograph pictures, which persist for a few milliseconds. Rapidly switched scenes, or frames, give the illusion of continuous motion. Each frame is a "lucid memory". Young's most famous experiment is the double-slit experiment, which proved the wave nature of light. Light is first sent through a tiny slight, creating a point source, and then onto two tiny slits, with the outgoing light creating an interference pattern on a screen. What does this have to do with Kryptos? Light must be inserted into a "tiny breach" Also, what makes it especially interesting here, is that Thomas Young was an all-around genius, who also helped to decode hieroglyphic writing by helping to decipher the famous Egyptian Rosetta Stone...

Lux / LUX:
Lux, meaning "light" or "mind". Sanborn has several other light projector sculptures.  Two of them, known as the Caloosahatchee Manuscripts in Fort Myers, are situated near one another so that the light projections overlap one another. This sculpture is also called Lux.  Lux (lx) is the scientific unit of illuminance, defined as lx=lumen/m^2.  The unit for luminance is the candela/m^2, were the candela (cd) is luminous intensity. In Kryptos Sec. 1, if you overlay the solution letters on top of the encrypted letters, like a PALIMPSEST - the key for Sec. 1, you can make the word "LUX" appear where the word "LIGHT" is. Obviously, the unit candela is derived from the word "candle".

Interesting...
EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ
BETWEENSUBTLESHADINGANDTHEABSENC

YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD
EOFLIGHTLIESTHENUANCEOFIQLUSION

Perhaps the Q of misspelled iQlusion is pointing to this, since there are several Q's around this location.
Likewise, the word "LIES" is immediately after "LIGHT" - perhaps tied in to the "deceit" media filter... Perhaps he made the "deceit" filter to point to this coincidence.
Sanborn also has another art piece he made in the Bentonite Hills of UT, (also known as Rainbow Hills) where he projects the repeated word LUX onto the landscape & another one in Blue Mesa, UT.

"M-94" Cipher Machine:
If you read encrypted Sec. 4 of Kryptos right-to-left, then there is only one letter "M" and it is at position 94. This is a possible clue to the nature of the cipher method for Sec. 4. The M-94 cipher wheel system was also implemented in 1922, the same year as the opening of King Tut's tomb. see Cipher Wheel...

Matrix:
Sanborn refers to part of the solution as restoring the original "matrix".  I believe that this means "matrix" in the archaeological sense, where the bottom four rows are regarded as an archeological DIG, and artifacts (i.e. suggestive words) are found in the surrounding "matrix".  The shifting of the rows as part of the Sec. 3 instructions is the procedure for restoring the original "matrix". It is very similar to the operation of the M-94 cipher cylinder.  This is also a bit how steganography would work, with words hidden in the matrix of surrounding letters. see Steganography, Hill cipher

Metaphor:
The entire sculpture, the decrypted sections, the keywords, and the Morse code phrases all imply that Kryptos is ultimately a metaphorical puzzle. James Sanborn himself says that he loves metaphor, and metaphor is the number one tool of artists. Sanborn is an artist first (his profession for many years), archaeologist second (his education), and cryptographer third (learned just before doing the Kryptos sculpture).

From a few pages further in "The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen": Surely never before in the whole history of excavation had such an amazing sight been seen as the light of our torch revealed to us... Let him [the reader, or in this case, the decrypter] imagine how they appeared to us as we looked down upon them from our spy-hole in the blocked doorway, casting the beam of light from our torch -- the first light that had pierced the darkness of the chamber for three thousand years -- from one group of objects to another, in a vain attempt to interpret the treasure that lay before us.


Metaphorical Encoding:
The sneaky type of encoding used on Sec.4 of Kryptos. The encoding uses symbolism and metaphor, which makes it more like a puzzle than a strict classical type of encoding. This also leads to the "site-specific" nature of Kryptos, which Sanborn is known for.

Minutia:
One of Sanborn's Filter Media pieces, along with other filters with words for deceit, light, shadow, etc. Minutia means the "small details". Sanborn has placed a number of minutia in several of his sculptures. see Anomalous Features...

Mispelled(sic) words:
There is a single misspelled word in the first 3 sections. Some, but not all, of these have been confirmed to be deliberate.
1) IQLUSION
2) UNDERGRUUND
3) DESPARATLY
These 3 letters spell the word "Qua", which means "in the character of". This could mean that Kryptos is itself a virtual crypt.
Also, each of the misspelled letters is paired to a double letter:
Q<--> LL
UU<-->O
EE<-->A
Also, the misspelled letters encode to another possible message
Q<-->K
U<-->R
A<-->L which leads to Y (from L-RAY)
This gives "KRY" leaving "PTOS" for section 4. "T is your position"->T-Pos->PTOS
Thus, the word "KRYPTOS" is encoded in the sculpture again.

Shannon Ruby of the Kryptos group noticed that the misspelled Q is at pos 57, the mispelled U at pos 179, and 179/57~3.1404, a pretty close approximation to the mathematical constant PI~3.1415.


Also:
the Q misspelling in Sec.1 is a reference to the Q beside the ?-doorway in decrypted Sec.3
the UU misspelling in Sec.2 is a reference to the W beside the ?-doorway in encrypted Sec.4 (UU = double-U = W)
the A misspelling in Sec.3 is a reference to the ?-doorway, by means of the L-Ray -> XQ light rays pointing to the ?-doorway.

There is also a possible misspelled word in the Morse code phrases:
DIGETAL INTERPRETATI-?
I believe that this gives an anagram, "Dig-tale", relating to the idea of Kryptos as a digital hieroglyphic scroll. Alternately, the Morse Code could be read as DIGeTALEee.
See also Queens....

Missing letter X's / Additional letter X's:
In 2006, Sanborn announced that the well-known solution to K2 had a "mistake" in it, that is was missing an "X" after the PT coordinates and before the phrase "ID BY ROW(S)".  Inserting this "X" changes the latter part to "LAYER TWO".  I believe that Sanborn was expecting someone to notice this absence of the X, but the fact that its removal led to believe PT prevented it till his announcement. I think he was attempting to hint that a letter/word must be inserted somewhere in the text.  A likely candidate is after the "X Can you see anything, Q (?)" in K3, which leads to my theory of the "candle" in K4.  He also requires extra characters to be added in the decryption of the large English COF, and placed extra "X"s after the PT of the Zola COF.

MIST:
"Details emerged from the mist." A clue that the word MIST needs to be formed to correctly decrypt section 4. The MIST rises vertically to the "T is your position" observation point, from the M-94 "M".  Also, there is a "buried artifact" message in the double-letter MIST decryption. Also, this is metaphorical, with MIST referring to the scramble of letters from which the message will appear.

Modular Transposition Encoding/Decoding:
Sec.3 is solved by using a modular transposition decoding: [ decrypted=(192*encrypted+192-1) mod 337 ]. There are numerous ways that this can be broken down into row-column transpositions using 336 characters and jumps of appropriate size. A favorite is (7 rows * 48 columns), which uses the keyword  KRYPTOS=0362514, for the row ordering. It can be shown that all of these row-column transpositions are mathematically equivalent to the more general modular transposition decoding.

The "Covert Operations Fragment" from the Zola Spy Restaurant also uses Modular Transposition Encoding (with different parameters d=(16*e+16-1) mod 513), and like Sec.3 of Kryptos, gives a paraphrased account of Howard Carter's opening of King Tut's tomb, in which the wording has been slightly altered. see Zola and Altered Wording...

Morse Code Phrases:
There are several Morse code phrases cut into the copper plate sections of the large slabs at the front entrance.

.  .  ...-  ..  .-.  -  ..-  .-  .-..  .-..  -.--  .  |  .  .  .  .  .  .  ..  -.  ...-  ..  ...  ..  -... .-..  .
e e  V   I   R  T  U  A   L   L    Y   e  | e  e e e  e e  I  N  V   I   S   I   B   L  E

-..  ..  --.  .  -  .-  .-..  .  .  .  |  ..  -.  -  .  .-.  .--.  .-.  .  -  .-  -  ..  -cut
D   I  G  E T A  L    e e e  |   I  N T E  R   P   R  E T A T  I  -?
or
D   I  G  e  T A  L   E e e  |   I  N T E  R   P   R  E T A T  I  -? (possibly "Interpretation" or "Interpret at I"

.  .  ...  ....  .-  -..  ---  .--  .  .  |  ..-.  ---  .-.  -.-.  .  ...  .  .  .  .  .
e e  S   H  A  D   O  W  e e  |  F    O   R   C  E  S  e e  e e e

.-..  ..-  -.-.  ..  -..  .  .  .  |  --  .  --  ---  .-.  -.--  .
 L   U   C   I   D  e  e e | M  E M  O  R   Y   e

 -  ..  ...  -.--  ---  ..-  .-.  |  .--.  ---  ...  ..  -  ..  ---  -.  (.)?
T   I  S   Y    O  U   R   |   P   O   S   I  T  I  O  N (e)?

...  ---  ...
S   O   S

.-.  --.-
R    Q

Each of these phrases gives a metaphorical clue in the decryption of Kryptos. Each of the long phrases can be loosely paired with phrases from the Sec.2 Secret Message as well. The extra e's represent either errors or pauses in transmission, and may have some other cryptic meaning in decoding Kryptos. There are 25 of them total. So maybe we should concentrate on something at 26, the W before the ?-doorway. Also, since there are 25 "pauses", or "dead air", perhaps they are a hint about the "AIR" at position 25 in the Sec. 4 crypt decoding.

Mummy Room, The:
A James Sanborn exhibition ( 7' x 10' x 4' ) from 1983 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, containing (NFS compasses, lodestone, fool's gold, basalt, sandstone, theatrical lights, and the mummified corpse of Ti Ameny Net in a polychromed wooden case - Egyptian, 22nd Dynasty, on loan from the University of Richmond Ancient World Gallery Collection - ).  Apparently, the mummy was that of a lower rank Egyptian princess. The mummy has been X-rayed and CT scanned, but not unwrapped.  There is apparently a scroll in the lower portion of the wrappings that has never been opened - still inside the wrappings. I would like to know more about this exhibit if anyone has any information about it or pictures of it.  One source of info (from UVA-Richmond, the mummy's home) said that the display was quite dramatic and beautiful, but unfortunately he had no pictures. It seems relevant to the solution of Kryptos in my opinion.  Kryptos may be the "interactive" embodiment of this "quest" idea.  According to James Sanborn, "...I was very influenced by the natural sciences and had tremendous interest in archaeology and geology...  ...I employ natural objects and found objects and use them in large measure for their metaphorical content. For example, in 1983 I borrowed an Egyptian mummy from a university archaeology department and used it in an installation I did at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts...".  
Note added later: I finally got a pic from Elonka at the 2005 Dragon*Con!!
see also Invisible Forces and the Art of the Quest...


"N"-line of Tableau:
This is the line with the extra L on the tableau side and the superscript characters "YA_R" on the cipher side.

Necropolis Seals:
The H's found in the "doorways" could be the Necropolis seals of the tomb, both on the outer and inner "doors". Necropolis Seal
see Doors

Null characters:
There seem to be "null" characters in the section 2 and 3 plaintexts. There are (4-X's) in Sec.2 and (1-X,1-Q) in Sec.3. Other than simply throwing off frequency analysis, there may be further meaning to these characters.

O:
Hieroglyphic symbol of the Sun disk of Re/Ra. Used in many of the cartouches of the Pharaohs of Egypt, as well as other hieroglyphs.

O
T: Hieroglyphic symbol of an Ankh, the Egyptian symbol for Life.

Oddities that need explanation:
There are a number of odd features of the Kryptos sculpture. In no particular order there are: Morse code phrases with extra dits, stacks of rock slabs, an inscribed compass and actual lodestone, a small pond, jagged-lined text over smooth-lined text, superscript/raised-font letters, partially indented letters, an extra letter "L" on the Tableau side, a missing letter "X" in the K2 PT, unusual keywords, mysterious plaintexts, misspelled words with letters that possibly encode to the word "Kryptos", plaintext that has been altered slightly from the source text, extra "null" characters (X's,Q,?), statistically significant doubled letters in section 4, suggestive words in the encrypted form of the text, curious hints in the plaintexts, etc. Any final solution will need to explain all of these features. John's metaphorical solution to Sec.4 seems to provide this explanation.

OSS - Office of Strategic Services (predecessor agency of the CIA):
As noted by Dale, OSS could be an anagram for SOS, and written backwards as SSO, which is the interesting bit of code that moves to under the "tiny breach" when you follow K3 as instructions to carry out on K4.  The OSS was the predecessor agency of the CIA. See SOS...

Other elements around Kryptos:
Compass, needle attracted by lodestone, south-end pointing approx. 15-30 degrees N of E
Several 4-layered stone blocks/slabs, 2 of which are on either end of a small pond 
Pyramid design on corner of a "kite/shield-shaped" block
A couple of large colored (one white, one reddish-brown) stones near the sculpture itself
Morse code phrases on copper plate covering part of granite slabs:

Other Kryptos Sculptures & related encryptions:
see Code Room 1990, Antipodes, Covert Balance, Untitled Kryptos Sculpture, Covert Operations Fragment-Zola Spy Restaurant, etc.

PALIMPSEST:
The keyword for solving section 1. A palimpsest is a type of scroll in which some of the text has been partially erased and reused, with the erased part sometimes still somewhat visible underneath the new writing. Kryptos is designed to be an interactive palimpsest when you follow the instructions of section 3 to decrypt section 4. There is multiple reuse of the letters in the code. This is a really clever way to design a palimpsest. Also, as noted by Gian Chreteau of the Kryptos group, an alternate definition of Palimpsest is: "An object, place, or area that reflects its history". If Kryptos is a virtual crypt and digital scroll, then this definition also seems to apply quite nicely. Kryptos qua "crypt", an object that reflects its history.

Passage / passageway:
see Head and YA_R:

Petrified wood:
The "roll" of the "scroll" in the Kryptos sculpture is made from petrified wood, implying that it is an "ancient scroll".  This also perhaps implies that the solution refers to an ancient tomb, that of King Tutankhamen. The petrified wood is a metaphor for the embalmed mummy.

Pictures of Kryptos stuff:
Jim Gillogly's Kryptos Pictures + Elonka's Kryptos Pics

Poem/Poetry:
Section 1 of Kryptos is a short poem. "Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion (sic)" According to Sanborn, these were carefully chosen words, implying that there is deeper meaning.

Pond/Pool:
There is a small pond with granite slab structures on either side in the wooded part of the inner courtyard, not too far from the Kryptos sculpture. It is a secondary part of the Kryptos sculpture, and is a possible metaphor for the entrance to the Egyptian underworld. (Note that the walkway entrance to the CIA headquarters building is between the front entrance slabs.) There appear to be water lilies in the pond, which may be related to the Tut wooden head rising from a blue lotus (blue water lily) found in the rubble blocking the passageway. see HEAD...

There is also a very small circular pool right next to the Kryptos sculpture. This pool supposedly has a pump in it that makes the water circulate and bubble.

Possible Hints:
Sanborn has some other light projections and filters, in which he displays various words, such as: Inganno (Italian: deceit), Tromperie (French: deceit), Kryptos (Greek: hidden/secret), Obmah (Russian: deceit), Falta (Spanish: deceit), Fallacia (Latin: deceit), Lux (Latin: light), Ombre (French: shadow), CBET (Russian: light), Minutia (English: small details), TEHb (Russian: shadow), Inclinare/Aequus (Latin: bais/unbaised) - note that Kryptos and TEHb were definitely used on the encrypted sculptures. see Filter Media Exhibition


Q's and X's:
See X -> Q light rays, as well as all the extra X's in K2


"QS":
Under "subtle shading" lighting conditions, the letters QS seem to appear on the white rock sitting just beside the Kryptos Sculpture.  Perhaps extra emphasis on Q's?  Maybe reference to the "Queens"?  iQlusion? id by row S? Who knows? Only WW apparently...

Q-Signals / Morse Code:
Paul of the Kryptos group has noted that the final Q in Sec.3, just before the ? may be referring to Morse code Q-Signals. These are apparently a standardized code for many messages regarding travel by air and ocean. See a Q-Signals website for more details.  This is particularly interesting since there is a Q-signal for "What is your position/location", which may be related to the "(Wha)t is your position" Morse code message at the sculpture. see also Morse Code

"QUA"/Q--U-->:
The misspelled letters from the first 3 sections of Kryptos.
Q in IQLUSION is char 57
U in UNDERGRUUND is char 179
A in DESPARATLY is char 525
"QUA" is Latin meaning "in the character of" - hence, Kryptos QUA crypt --> Kryptos in the character of a crypt.
As pointed out by Butch of the Kryptos group, these positions sum to 761, which the W just before the ?-doorway.
Again, this seems to indicate that part 4 is an "Underground Illusion"... which only WW knows...
QUA could also be some kind of back-reference to the Quagmire encoding scheme.
Also, the line from Q through U points to the word DIG at the very bottom.

Quagmire Enciphering:
The technical name of the encoding scheme shown on the Kryptos sculpture is called Quagmire III.  It is a modification of the standard Vigenère encoding, in that it uses a "keyed" cipher-alphabet and lookup, as well as the regular Vigenère keyword.

"Queens":
There are a couple of references to Queens. The misspelled words paired to double letters can spell QUEEN if there is an "N" in section 4. Also, there are 2 "Queens of Egypt" almost visible in section 2 and section 3. There is XUEEN on line 6 and QHEEN on line 19. Also, note that perhaps the "X can you see anything Q" is used here.  Take the first misspelled letter "Q" from IQLUSION.  XUEEN-->becomes QUEEN.  Take the 2nd misspelled letter "U" from UNDERGRUUND. QHEEN-->becomes QUEEN.  These "Queens" form part of the X --> Q light ray which points to the ?-doorway. see also Royal...

Quest:
see Invisible Forces and the Art of the Quest...

Raised-font letters:
see Superscript letters.

Re / Ra:
The Egyptian Sun god and god of light. His name is involved in some of the X->Q light rays, particularly the one in the lower-right corner of the virtual tomb. Also see HEAD...

Related sculptures & texts:
Several of Sanborn's encoded sculptures, as well some others, seem to be intricately related!
Take Kryptos as the central sculpture.
Antipodes/Covert Balance/Untitled combines the encrypted text of Kryptos and the Cyrillic Projector.
The Cyrillic Projector (KGB related) contrasts with Kryptos (CIA related), with similar physical styles and encryption methods.
The Cyrillic Projector (Karl Marx-Communism) contrasts with Adam Smith's Spinning Top (Adam Smith-Capitalism) at same location, UNCC Business Admin Bldg.
Zola Spy Restaurant Covert Operations Fragment and Kryptos Section 3 both decode to the Howard Carter account of opening King Tut's Tomb.
Quite a few of these use standing water-jet-cut bronze sheets, in either cylindrical or S-shape forms.
The best site to see all of these is Elonka's comprehensive James Sanborn artwork list. (GalleryArt, Exhibitions)
Adam Smith/Wealth of Nations:
Adam Smith Spinning Top
Binary Projection - Zola
Circulating Capital
Wealth of Nations/Adam Smith Spinning Top II
Encrypted Text (7-bit ASCII, Keyed Vigenere, Modular Transposition, Morse Code):
Antipodes/Covert Balance
Binary Projection - Zola
Binary Systems - IRS - Binary Converter& Binary Paving
Circulating Capital
Covert Operations Fragments - Zola, FRB
Covert Ops Fragment - Cyrillic
Covert Ops Fragment - English
Covert Ops Fragment - Zola
Cyrillic Projector
Encoded Cylinder 1990
Kryptos
Listening Post
Stamford Mini-Park
Foreign Languages (Russian, var. American Indian, Greek, Latin, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, etc. several):
A,A & another pic with Jim inside
Antipodes/Covert Balance
Covert Operations Fragments
COF Cyrillic
Cyrillic Projector
Ex Nexum
Indian Run Park
Lingua
Kryptos sec.4 - Digital Hieroglyphics
Stamford Mini-Park
(Inscribed) Compasses and/or Lodestones:
Binary Systems - IRS
Dalliance with Medusa - 1988 Gallery Installation
Find the Lodestone
Invisible Forces
Invisible Forces and the Art of the Quest - included the petrified mummy of Ti Ameny Net
Kryptos
King Tut/Howard Carter reference:
Covert Operations Fragments - Zola
Covert Ops Fragment - Zola
Kryptos
Light Projection or Light Cylinder:
A,A & another pic with Jim inside
Binary Projection - Zola
Circulating Capital
Code Room 1990 Kryptos Projector
Cyrillic Projector
Filter Media Projections, var. - light, shadow, Kryptos, deceit, minutia, bias, etc.
IACTO
Indian Run Park
Kryptos
Lingua
LUX onto the landscape - Bentonite Hills
Lux - Caloosahatchee Manuscripts
Petrified Wood:
Antipodes/Covert Balance
Code Room 1990 Kryptos Projector
Dalliance with Medusa - 1988 Gallery Installation
Kryptos
See all of the above...

Row-Column Transposition Encoding/Decoding:
Sec.3 is solved by using a modular transposition decoding: [ decrypted=(192*encrypted+192-1) mod 337 ]. There are numerous ways that this can be broken down into row-column transpositions using 336 characters and jumps of appropriate size. A favorite is (7 rows * 48 columns), which uses the keyword  KRYPTOS=0362514, for the row ordering. It can be shown that all of these row-column transpositions are mathematically equivalent to the more general modular transposition decoding.

"Royal" Clue:
lokseal2004 of the Kryptos group noticed in Sept 2005 that the upraised letters and the correct letters of the misspellings in part one and two rearranged (an anagram) spell "ROYAL", maybe being a clue to part three.  I like this idea also.  I had noticed the two almost "QUEENS", and the almost "ROYAL" in the CT all line up nicely in Courier (equal spaced) font to line up the X's and Q's from the XQ "Light" to the ?-doorway of K4. see also Queens & X->Q Light Ray.  Again, this seems to indicate that "shining the light" into K4 reveals Tut's tomb.

"RQ" Morse Code:
The Morse code for "request" or interrogative / ?.  It represents the need in part 4 for the CANDLE to be inserted. The symbolic compass in encrypted Sec.4 is made from the letters RRQQ. It points to the "T is your position" location.

RuneQuest Cipher Challenge:
A cipher puzzle inspired by Kryptos, designed by John B. Wilson, after having played with the mystery of Kryptos for over a year. It employs some similar encoding techniques and has a number of subtle clues and mysteries itself.  One of its major benefits is that it doesn't require a CIA pass to go have a look at it. In my own (not so humble) opinion, it is as elaborate and intriguing as Kryptos, and perhaps more challenging.  Its final solution is very cool.
John's RuneQuest Cipher Challenge! Win $$$

"S", from ID-by-row-S:
"S, 19th letter of the English alphabet. It first appeared in its modern form in the Roman alphabet, as the equivalent of the Greek letter sigma, ultimately derived from an Egyptian hieratic character based on the hieroglyph for an inundated garden. The s sound, technically known as a sibilant consonant, may be either voiceless or voiced. The letter s is occasionally given the phonetic value of sh or zh in words such as sure and treasure; it is silent in a few words, including aisle and debris." The inundated garden is a typical garden along the Egyptian Nile river, which periodically floods. This is related to a flower, the blue lotus water lily, which is native to Egypt and can be found along the Nile. See water lily... and LAYER TWO...

Sanborn, James:
Sculptor and creator of the Kryptos sculpture. He has made a number of famous cryptic encoded-message sculptures over the years. These also include the "Untitled" Kryptos Pieces, also known as "Antipodes".  The "Covert Operations Fragments" in the Zola Spy Restaurant also seem to be related. He says he likes to play with "Light and Shadow".

Scheidt, Edward M.:
Retired CIA cryptographer and consultant for designing the code of the Kryptos sculpture. He "saved the best for last".

Seals/Necropolis Seals:
The H's found in the two "doors" may be the "seals" of the Necropolis inspectors that sealed Tut's tomb, both at the bottom and top of the passageway. see Doors...
Necropolis Seal

Seeing Things:
What a lot of other people involved in the hunt for the solution of K4 think that John is doing.  ;-)  However, it says "X Can you see anything Q ?" at the end of K3.

Secret Message:
Part 2 of Kryptos sounds like an interrupted secret message transmission. There are 5 sections, cut/interrupted by X's, each of which can be roughly correlated to the 5 "long" Morse code phrases. Note with the new final X, there would be 6 sections...  See LAYER TWO.

Scroll:
The outside structure of Kryptos resembles an ancient scroll. It is this detail which leads to the clue for section 1 which is the word PALIMPSEST, which is a particular type of scroll. In the final part of section 4, the bottom section of Kryptos is decoded as a digital hieroglyphic scroll. See hieroglyphs.

Shadow / TEHb:
Shadow is the English translation of the Russian word TEHb, the keyword for the Cyrillic Projector cipher-alphabet. see also Antipodes and Filter Media Exhibit...

"Shadow Forces" Morse Code:
One of the Morse code phrases at the front entrance. Possible reference to the CIA, and maybe to Egyptian deities. Also, maybe "Forces Shadow"="4 says Shadow", so we need a light. Also, related to the 3rd part of the Sec.2 secret message, "Does Langley know about this..."

Smooth Edges:
The bottom 4 lines of the cipher side are smooth. The lines above are jagged. See Jagged Edges.

"SOS" Morse Code / "SSO" in Sec. 4 / OSS:
This SOS Morse code message is next to a "tiny breach" in the rock slab.  This is mirrored by the "SSO" letters just under where the metaphorical "tiny breach" is in the decrypted Sec.4, where the CANDLE is placed. Also, this is a distress call reference to the need for a light on ancient ships, or in this case a CANDLE. The "SSO"'s are also placed directly underneath the ?-doorways in the related Kryptos sculptures, "Untitled" and "Antipodes"  Interestingly, consider the following: as seen from above, Kryptos appears as an "S", Antipodes appears as an "S", and the Cyrillic Projector appears as an "O".  Kryptos-Antipodes-Cyrillic Projector -->  SSO.  Also, reading backwards, we get OSS, the predecessor agency of the CIA.  See OSS...

Source Documents:
Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to the Myths, Religions, Pyramids, and Temples of the Land of the Pharaohs,
by Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin. The section entitled "The Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb", pgs. 114 & 115.
Of course, the information was taken from an earlier version, as the book has been reprinted many times.
These 2 pages have the source text of section 3, Howard Carter's account, with *almost* correct wording, and more descriptions which can be found in the section 4 virtual crypt. These pages are most likely copied from an earlier source document with the same or similar material. See also Head in passageway...

Slowly, desperately slowly, it seemed to us as we watched, the remains of the passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the doorway were removed, until at last, the whole door was clear before us. The decisive moment had come. With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left-hand corner. Darkness and blank space as far as I could reach, showing that whatever lay beyond was empty and not filled like the passage we had just cleared. Candle tests were then applied as a precaution against foul gases, and then, widening the hole a little, I inserted a candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously nearby to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle to flicker, but as my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange statues and animals and gold, everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment, an eternity it must have seemed to those standing by, I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnavon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, 'Can you see anything?' it was all I could do to get out the words, 'Yes. Wonderful things!' Then making the hole a little wider we inserted an electric torch.



and indeed, we find the original quote in:
The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen, by Howard Carter and A.C. Mace. Notice that there are slight differences in the texts.

Slowly, desperately slowly it seemed to us as we watched, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the doorway were removed, until at last we had the whole door clear before us. The decisive moment had arrived. With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner. Darkness and blank space, as far as an iron testing-rod could reach, showed that whatever lay beyond was empty, and not filled like the passage we had just cleared. Candle tests were applied as a precaution against possible foul gases, and then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment - an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by - I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnavon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, 'Can you see anything?' it was all I could do to get out the words, 'Yes. Wonderful things.' Then widening the hole a little further, so that we both could see, we inserted an electric torch.

The bottom paragraph seems to match Kryptos Sec. 3 and Zola more precisely. This places a greater incidence of altered wording into Kryptos Sec. 3 than into Zola, fitting the theory that Kryptos has more "stuff" in it. See Altered Wording...

From a few pages further in "The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen": 
Surely never before in the whole history of excavation had such an amazing sight been seen as the light of our torch revealed to us... Let him [the reader, or in this case, the decrypter] imagine how they appeared to us as we looked down upon them from our spy-hole in the blocked doorway, casting the beam of light from our torch -- the first light that had pierced the darkness of the chamber for three thousand years -- from one group of objects to another, in a vain attempt to interpret the treasure that lay before us.

Sphinx, Mystery of & Riddle of the Sphinx:
Another Kryptos group member, Michael Abban, has made the following observations.  If the top and bottom lines of encrypted Kryptos are combined, the paired letters act as an index on the tableau side, and the possible clue of "HUGEPAW" mixed in with other random letters is displayed. He also noted that in the decrypted form, the vertical word "LION" shares the same "L" with the horizontal word "LOCATION".  Since there is the mysterious additional "L" on the tableau side, these could all be pointers to the Mystery of the Sphinx, the famous Egyptian statue which has a man's head, with Egyptian headdress, on the body of a huge, crouching lion. The Egyptian Sphinx is mysterious in and of itself, its origins having been lost to the mists of time.  I would further note that the "Riddle of the Sphinx", from the ancient Greek tale of Oedipus fits in nicely with the whole Kryptos mystery.

Steganography:
Scheidt dropped a comment that he used a bit of steganography in K4.  This fits well with the metaphorical decoding of words in the matrix. You have to find the words within the background structure. see Matrix

Superscript letters:
There are 3 letters which are in superscript font on the cipher side of the Kryptos sculpture, END^YAH^R.  They are the 4th, 5th, and 7th letters of that row. They spell "YA_R". They are on the top line of the bottom plate.  With the extra letter "L" on the same line on the tableau side, reading backwards gives "L-RAY", meaning "light ray". See also Extra letter "L". The raised letters, are surrounded by the characters which make up the partially indented D^YAH^R. The "H" is the symbolic seal protecting the opening of passageway to the tomb.  It has been noted, I forget by who, that the corresponding letters on the Vigenere side are I,J,M, or anagram of JIM, for Jim Sanborn.
EN D^YAH^R OHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA | NGHIJLMNQUVWXZKRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJL

Symbolic Compass & Lodestone:
The symbolic compass is a representation of the actual compass, and points to the "T is your position" letter "T" which is just in front of where the CANDLE needs to be inserted. The compass rose is made from the letters RRQQ, with VV representing the needle vane.  The RQ's are a reference to the RQ Morse code message, which indicate that something is needed here, since RQ is Morse code for a "request".  LL represents the lodestone.  Also, you can make the words "ROSE" and "LODESTONE" from the letters nearby. The symbolic compass points to the "T" is your position letter, and helps to locate the position of the CANDLE to be inserted. BTW, the RQ Morse code message was driving me crazy in terms of what its significance was until I found this. See Compass & Lodestone.

RQ - meaning "? / interrogative / a request for something"
QV - meaning "quod vide = which sees"
VR - meaning "virtual reality, in this case the virtual tomb of Tutankhamen"
Overall, need something which allows the virtual tomb to be seen...

Symbolism:
The 4th section of the Kryptos sculpture apparently uses quite a bit of symbolism. This includes a symbolic RRQQ compass and lodestone which is used to locate the metaphorical ?-doorway. Also, the solution to part 4 uses the idea of KRYPTOS qua crypt. The 4th section is a symbolic tomb and hieroglyphic scroll.  You can see the letters for USE SYMBOLS beside the LOOK message.

"T is your position" Morse Code:
This is one of the main clues for solving section 4. Once the CANDLE is inserted, you would be standing at the "T" just in front of it.  This "T" is also indicated by the symbolic compass & lodestone. This Morse code phrase is also next to the actual compass and lodestone. Also, related to the 5th part of the Sec.2 secret message, "38 degrees, 57 minutes, 6.5 seconds...". 
Also, this is the last part of the misspelled letters for Kryptos, "KRY-PTOS".  [PTOS -> TPOS -> T-POS -> T is your position] See Misspelled Letters...

The Da Vinci Code:
see Da Vinci Code, The and Dan Brown...

THEMIST:
This is the actual beginning of the section 4 tomb, and the beginning point from which the details will emerge. Basically, the bottom 4 rows of Kryptos are the virtual crypt. This means that bottom line of section 3 gets reused, fitting in with the palimpsest concept.

The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen:
Original source of the text of Kryptos Sec. 3 and Zola Spy-Convert Ops Fragment. See Source Documents and Altered Wording...

Tomb:
Section 4 of Kryptos is a virtual tomb. It represents the actual tomb of King Tutankhamen, discovered by Howard Carter.
Note: the Egyptian word/hieroglyph for "tomb" is "HWT", and this can be found in the virtual tomb.

Tutankhamen / Tutankhamon/ Tutankhamun/ Tut:
The various English transliterations of Tut's name. See King Tut

U = W:
See W = U...

UNDERGRUUND:
The misspelled word of Section 2. Reference to the virtual tomb of Section 4. The "U" encodes to an "R" in KRYPTOS.

"Untitled" Kryptos Piece / Antipodes / Covert Balance:
Pics and transcript of "Untitiled" available here & Hirshhorn Antipodes/Covert Balance pics & info here. These "sister" sculptures contain the text of the actual Kryptos sculpture, but with different ordering and alignments, as well as a few other oddities apart from the actual Kryptos. These sculptures begin with section 3 of the real Kryptos. The line widths are a bit longer than on the real Kryptos, enough to have the full word "KRYPTOS" at the start and end of the top line of the cipher-alphabet. There is an extra SPACE, or gap, inserted once at what would be the end of the real Kryptos and before where it starts repeating. However, this extra space oddly doesn't occur at the second repetition. There is a smooth edge on the 2nd repeat of the section 4 text. The superscript characters are not present, and there don't appear to be any indented letters.  Elonka noticed on her 05/14/2004 visit that there are two dots, surrounding the letter .F. which decodes to a W of the "only WW knows" section.

|VIDXFLGGTEZ?FKZBS.F.DQVGOGIPUFXHHDRKF|
|ACTLOCATION?ONLYW.W.THISWASHISLASTMES|
|1234567890123456789012345678901234567|

I believe that Sanborn is trying to give more clues about how to decrypt the actual Kryptos with these sculptures. The extra inserted space, "a tiny breach", is next to (North-East of) the letters R and Q, a reference to the Morse code "RQ", and ultimately to the symbolic RRQQ compass which is in the real Kryptos. A "T" is nearby as well. The inserted space is also on the 13th line, which could be a reference to the fact that the tomb was 13 feet below ground. The ?-doorway is just above the "SSO" letters in both parts of Untitled, which is a reference to the "SOS" Morse code which is near a tiny breach in the real sculpture, and which is near the tiny breach symbolically in section 4. The ?-doorway above the "SSO" letters in both places seems intentional since it occurs in both places despite the varying line lengths. Another clue could be the vertical word "MOO" next to the ?-doorway in both places. As weird as this may sound, this may point to the vertically placed word "COW" in section 4 of the real sculpture, where the "W" is part of Tut's name as "TWT", and which was hinted at by frequency analysis of Sec. 1. The superscript characters are not present here since the spacing is now wrong from the "outside entrance" to the "?-doorway" position (not 16 steps). The dots around the decoded .W. may again be emphasizing the importance of the W before the ?-doorway, and also point out the idea that the Morse code phrases are applicable to that point. If we decode it to Morse code then we get "EWE" ( = W = U = "You").  see "COW"...

Vigenère Encoding/Decoding:
A fairly simple substitution cipher method. First, a cipher alphabet is created according to a primary keyword. Ex. KRYPTOSABCDEFGHIJLMNQUVWXZ. There are still only 26 letters used, but the ordering has changed. Next, rows of this alphabet are created with different offsets according to a secondary keyword. Finally, the message is created by using letter substitution, moving down the rows with each letter to be encoded. Start back at the top row once the bottom is reached. Decoding uses the exact same process, but reversing the offset directions. This type of encoding is used on Sections 1 and 2 of Kryptos, as well as a modified form in Sanborn's Cyrillic Projector.  Antipodes combines both the Kryptos code, and the Cyrillic Projector code, plus a bit more Cyrillic. see also Quagmire encoding...

"Virtually Invisible" Morse Code:
This Morse code clue becomes understandable once the Section 4 crypt is created. The hidden words are totally visible, yet "virtually invisible" unless you understand the context of the message. Also, related to the 1st part of the Sec.2 secret message, "It was totally invisible..."

Virtual Tomb / Virtual Crypt:
Section 4 of Kryptos is a "virtual" tomb. It is a metaphor for the real tomb of King Tutankhamen. This is very clever, as Tut has now been "encrypted", in both senses of the word, encrypted into a code, and encrypted into a tomb.

Water Lily / Egyptian Blue Lotus:
There appear to be water lilies in the pond in the inner courtyard. The Egyptian Blue Lotus is a particular type of water lily native to the Nile region, and had religious significance in the Egyptian mythos. Tut's body was covered with these Lotus petals when found. A hint about a sculpture of Tut's head rising from a blue lotus leads to the idea that Section 4 is a Virtual Crypt. see Pond...

W = U:
In Egyptian transliteration, the letter's W and U are identical.  Therefore, for instance, TWT = TUT.
There also seems to be a W = U = e.w.e ="You" interpretation from the "Only W.W. knows" on the Untitled Kryptos sculpture.  This seems to relate to the metaphorical solution of Sec. 4 where the W in front of the ?-doorway is the metaphorical "You".  See Untitled...

Wilson, John B.:
Amateur cryptographer and an excellent programmer (background in physics, math, computing, gaming), under the [possibly mistaken -- nah!  ;-)] assumption that he has solved Kryptos Sec. 4, at least metaphorically.  You are looking at his pages now... He spent about a year being obsessed with Kryptos and the result are these webpages.  Good luck to anyone else who gets the same obsession to solve Part 4, it will take over your brain.  He came up the idea of reading Sec. 3 as metaphorical instructions to carry out on Sec. 4 about five days after hearing about the Kryptos sculpture from Elonka Dunin at Dragon*Con. He had an intuitive flash that it would work before he actually did it. It led to COFFINS and TUT.  Later, after correctly word wrapping the bottom rows, was happily impressed to find EGYPT.  Then, after a chance discovery in a bookstore, noticed the HEAD in the passageway. Not one, but THREE, "That's got to be it" elated discovery moments... Is he wrong? James Sanborn finally did answer an email with "Dear John, This is not the way, Jim". In the mean time, John has created his own cipher challenge, John's RuneQuest Cipher Challenge! Win $$$, which is just as elaborate and intricate as Kryptos. 

WW, Only WW knows...:
"Who knows the exact location? Only WW." Quote from the 2nd section of Kryptos. Supposedly refers to William Webster, the CIA director (May 26, 1987 - Aug 31, 1991) at the time of the Kryptos installation (Nov 3, 1990). Also, probably a reference to the Egyptian priests or necropolis inspectors who buried King Tut.  Could also be a reference to Walt Whitman's poem "Salut" (Egypt part 10) and Whitman's obsession with the design of his own crypt, which is made from huge granite blocks weighing tons. "W" is a great symbolic representation of a mummy's hands folded across the breast.

I see Egypt and the Egyptians, I see the pyramids and obelisks.
I look on chisell'd histories, records of conquering kings,
dynasties, cut in slabs of sand-stone, or on granite-blocks,
I see at Memphis mummy-pits containing mummies embalm'd,
swathed in linen cloth, lying there many centuries,
I look on the fall'n Theban, the large-ball'd eyes, the
side-drooping neck, the hands folded across the breast.

There is also the possibility of further clues about WW on the Cyrillic Projector sculpture, on which Sanborn altered the normal alphabet order of the 2 Cyrillic W's.  He also had the 2nd message CT begin with a W, but it begins at the end of the line, and would lie on top of the moved W of the tableau side.

X's of decoded section 2:
The X's of decoded section 2 are unnecessary from a decryption viewpoint, other than perhaps throwing off the frequency analysis. They are used to break up the secret message, and are a reference to the ABSCISSA keyword. There may also be some further meaning as well. The outline from connecting them is approximately the same shape as the extra ground stone near Kryptos, the one with the pyramid shaped feature etched on it...

X Can you see anything Q ?:
Following this question is the vertical word LOOK if section 3 is decoded. See X -> Q light rays and Queens...

X -> Q light rays:
The X's and Q's are unnecessary in the Sec. 3 decryption. They are not part of the original "quote" They are a clue to the X-->Q-->(?-doorway)  light rays. The Light Rays come from the odd superscript letters and extra letter: L-RAY. The X-->Q light-ray of decoded Sec. 3 point to the ?-doorway. The X-->Q light-ray of encoded Sec. 2 point to the ?-doorway. Also, the encoded XQ in Sec. 1 decodes to the word LIGHT and is on the light path. The shifting of the MIST places an XQ pair in the lower right hand corner, again on the light ray path. Interesting that RA (Egyptian god of light) was in that corner previously. There is also a possible X-->Q light-ray pointing to a buried artifact message. See Queens...

YA_R:
The superscript characters near the beginning of Section 3. They indicate the position of the entrance to the passageway to the tomb. They are also part of the L-RAY = light ray message. There are 16 "steps" between the "H" opening and the "C" of the inserted CANDLE. There is also the vertical word HEAD, in the rubble blocking the entrance. As noted by another Kryptos group member, "YA" is the Russian letter Я, the backwards R. If this is indeed Sanborn's intention, then it makes the upper doorway theory all the more symmetric.  see Head...
END ^ЯH^ROHNLSRHEOCPTEOIBIDYSHNAIA
CHTNREYULDSLLSLLNOHSNOSMRWXMNE
TPRNGATIHNRARPESLNNELEBLPIIACAE
WMTWNDITEENRAHCTENEUDRETNHAEOE
TFOLSEDTIWENHAEIOYTEYQHEENCTAYCR
EIFTBRSPAMHHEWENATAMATEGYEERLB

"You":
See W = U

Zola Spy Restaurant - "Covert Operations Fragments" (possibly related to Kryptos based on the modified Carter account):
This restaurant has a number of pieces by Sanborn. The ones now known to be related to Kryptos are the Covert Operation Fragments.
When the two pieces are placed together they give.
123456789012345678901234567890123456
_____     _____     _____     _____ 
DINEHYODTTSATEOSL|NSSEBDBHRTSODULL
EGTTPECLEEHTFESOAT|PSAYOAUMEWTBAWW
NHOWSOUNPBDEHRSLD|ESESNLKPLEHEIWYY
PHSRADDSEICADSEDE|OIEGWRPRNIDOTWEE
ELBAEAEALGSTOHASR|ELPWSACEHIHRATPP
EAEPEECEFAVEWTCED|LFLHMHATNEWAEHR
IIOIAPSSHDMHYNEAN|TUEDTHFASOOWCDTT
ITLDJYOANIMLEUTECL|GAUAWRDMEERMHLL
OEASSNEACANDEBEYU|ISATDDSODTORERSSS
LIEPCNTAREHOERELD|NSRLOHNNAARMEMOO
SSAEETAIETDCODAWE|ENCAFTRRIALVTILLLL
ERDARIWODNREEHNY|NTTUELHNAYRADESIII
OEHTDLATRBIRULOTT|DEICETEKRVBNOFSSS
HTNOADESNEEETWPEI|HWNNLVTEADFIEAEEE
NEIADIEISCWOLRSMGC|DGLKRNSHIRAPSEEE
XAEAEELGAITETAADX|NNITTARNNHULRGTT

After removing the extraneous/repeated end characters, the Zola fragments decode to *another* version of Howard Carter's account in his discovery to King Tut's tomb:

[ SLOWLY DESPERATELY SLOWLY IT SEEMED TO US AS WE WATCHED THE REMAINS OF PASSAGE DEBRIS THAT ENCUMBERED THE LOWER PART OF THE DOORWAY WERE REMOVED UNTIL AT LAST WE HAD THE WHOLE DOOR CLEAR BEFORE US THE DECISIVE MOMENT HAD ARRIVED WITH TREMBLING HANDS I MADE A TINY BREACH IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER DARKNESS AND BLANK SPACE AS FAR AS AN IRON TESTING ROD COULD REACH SHOWED THAT WHATEVER LAY BEYOND WAS EMPTY AND NOT FILLED LIKE THE PASSAGE WE HAD JUST CLEARED CANDLE TESTS WERE APPLIED AS A PRECAUTION AGAINST POSSIBLE FOUL GASES AND THEN WIDENING THE HOLE A LITTLE I INSERTED THE CANDLE AND PEERED IN I COULD SEE NOTHING X X ]

Modular Transpose decryption   [decrypted=(16*encrypted+15) mod 513]
Zola Covert Operations Fragment was solved by Keith Edkins in Dec 2003.
It is very similar in encoding method (only different parameters) and plaintext (minor differences)  to Sec.3 of Kryptos.
Note: the "I could see nothing" is interesting here since there is nothing following this text. In the Kryptos Sec. 3, it says "Can you see anything?", implying that there IS something there (in Kryptos Sec.4)  to be seen.
Note also: the fact that the first 4 encoded letters are "DINE" and the on the same line is the word "SATE", along with the fact that this sculpture is in a restaurant, strongly imply that the encoding method, parameters, and exact wording were chosen to give this result. Likewise, you can find the "scrambled" words "SPY" and "SPIES" in several locations, and possilbly "SOLA ~ for ZOLA" and "CODE".

from Carter's quote in The Tomb of Tut*Ankh*Amen:
Only the extra X's have been appended to the end...
Slowly, desperately slowly it seemed to us as we watched, the remains of passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the doorway were removed, until at last we had the whole door clear before us. The decisive moment had arrived. With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner. Darkness and blank space, as far as an iron testing-rod could reach, showed that whatever lay beyond was empty, and not filled like the passage we had just cleared. Candle tests were applied as a precaution against possible foul gases, and then, widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing (*X X*), the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment - an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by - I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnavon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, 'Can you see anything?' it was all I could do to get out the words, 'Yes. Wonderful things.' Then widening the hole a little further, so that we both could see, we inserted an electric torch.

see also, for another modified version
Howard Carter's diary: discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb - see Nov 26 entry

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