In 1963, in the town of Langley, 15 kilometers from downtown Washington, several modest buildings appeared without a sign on the facade, equipped with all the security systems available at that time and designed for 15 thousand employees.
Secrets of the Washington yard
Tourists, even the ubiquitous journalists and even patriotic journalists were not allowed inside. Still would. After all, these buildings became the headquarters of one of the most secret organizations in America - the Central Intelligence Agency. No, though. The most loyal and stubborn could get permission for an excursion (albeit no further than the hall) and admire the famous panel - an eagle sitting over a wind rose. But after the September 11 attacks, these visits were also banned.
However, despite the secrecy regime, some "secrets of the Washington court" still seep out. However, the CIA does not particularly hide these secrets. For example, a photo of "Kryptos" - the most "spy" monument in the world, directly related to the US Central Intelligence Agency, can be easily found on the Internet.
In 1990, artist Jim Sanborn brought an original work of art to the courtyard of the CIA headquarters. This sculpture is a huge sheet of copper, divided into four sections (K-1, K-2, K-3 and K-4). Each section is literally riddled with a huge number of Latin letters, located, at first glance, in a chaotic disorder. In fact, these are cryptograms. The sculpture is called “Kryptos”, which in Greek means “secret”. The envelope with the decryption of all four cryptograms was solemnly presented by Sanborn at the opening of the monument to CIA Director William Webster. The rest of the employees were given the opportunity to solve the code on their own.
Only WW knows …
Day and night, dozens of analysts and special agents of the CIA trained their brains and shamelessly exploited the computers of their own "office" in search of clues. But it wasn't until seven years later that someone named David Stein, a leading analyst at the US counterintelligence agency, was able to decipher the first three sections - K-1, K-2 and K-3. Here is what was written there:
K-1 - "Between the vague shadow and the absence of light lies a nuance illusion."
K-2 - Coordinates of CIA headquarters and the words: “Does Langley know about this? They should - it’s buried somewhere there. Who knows the exact location? WW Only”(WW - CIA Director William Webster).
Chart 3 - An excerpt from Egyptologist Howard Carter's report on his opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun: “Slowly, desperately slowly, the remnants of the debris that had blocked the lower part of the passage were removed. With shaking hands, I made a tiny hole in the upper left corner of the opening. And then, widening the hole a little, I put a candle in there and looked inside. The hot air leaving the cell made the flames flutter, but the details of the room were still visible in the darkness. Do you see anything?"
K-4 still remains unsolved.
Promotional video:
Last code
The excitement in search of the key to deciphering the last section rose after the publication of the novel "The Da Vinci Code". In the book itself, there is not even a hint of a cryptogram, but in the drawing on the dust jacket Dan Brown hid two whole references to "Kryptos", thus hinting that in the next novel this monument will not be enough.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of amateurs have been trying to find the code for the monument. Many want to sneak into the control courtyard and see for themselves that there are no clues on the monument itself (according to CIA officials). But the road to Sanborn's creation is closed to outsiders.
Try, maybe you can figure out the secret code of section K-4. This is how it looks:
OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBB WFLRVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJ QSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFB NYPVTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDI GKUHUAUEKCAR
Hint
In 2010, the author of the sculpture published a hint in The New York Times: the characters in section K-4 from 64 to 69 (NYPVTT) stand for BERLIN.
Good luck
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №8. Author: Konstantin Karelov