Apex of Kryptos

“No, [Ed Sheidt] doesn’t know the solution.   I made that very clear that I didn’t want him to be able to decipher what’s going on … that I’d be modifying systems and developing my own, which would make it virtually impossible for him to decipher all of it. I intended the 80 percent (of the text) that’s been deciphered to be deciphered and to be deciphered in stages and relatively quickly. The final part is obviously the, you know, the apex of the pyramid there.”

– Jim Sanborn in WIRED

Here is a picture of the apex of the pyramid.  Perhaps it just doesn’t exist.

The Apex is invisble or just doesn't exist.

Details of the Room Within

Details of the room within emerged from the mist x can you see anything Q?

-k3

Details of the room within emerged from the missed X?  The missed X, when put back in, reveals “Layer Two.”  Can you see anything Q?

A mask layer with holes at the X’s reveals an answer to this question when placed over the breached Q in the upper left-hand corner.  The underlying characters are YES QQQ.

Can you see anything Q? Yes QQQ.

This masking technique may explain why K2 is worded so strangely — the official explanation being that it was designed to sound like a Morse Code transmission.  Could it be that k2 was forced after a mask was used to position characters at certain locations in the ciphertext?

The Kryptos Project

Gary Phillips, the author of the “Kryptos Revisited” web site monitors various Kryptos-Sculpture-related web sites, blogs, and news sources to give you the best in originality and usefulness.  One web site that has stood as a beacon of information in the vast sea of endless Kryptos references is “The Kryptos Project” by Jew-Lee Lann.

Please visit her web site for original Kryptos sources at www.theKryptosProject.com.

This professional source is now among the other “Kryptos Revisited” recommended sites:

• The APEX of Kryptos
• APEX of Kryptos Blog
• Beyond K4
• CIA’s Kryptos Tour
• Elonka Dunin’s Kryptos Site
• Yahoo! Kryptos Group

CNN B-Roll Transcript (June 2005)

A previously concealed B-Roll transcript from CNN Interviews in June 2005 has been made available at KryptosRevisited.com.  The transcript was compiled and edited by CNN’s Justine Redman (producer) and Elonka Dunin.

Sanborn discusses details of his CIA Sculpture “Kryptos,” and reveals new information about clues leading up to K4.  He also discloses actual techniques and concepts about k4, noting how it might fit in to the rest of the puzzle.

Read the original transcript here.

CNN Article: Sanborn, Too, was Obsessed with Kryptos

A CNN article from June of 2005 has been referenced at KryptosRevisited.com.  Sanborn discusses with journalist James Ensor details about how the Kryptos solution was first shown to members of Historical Intelligence before handing a sealed envelope over to William Webster at the CIA’s New Headquarters Building dedication ceremony.  Sanborn talks about k4, that last unsolved passage of Kryptos, metaphorically suggesting it is like “sand in an hourglass.”  Discover why Kryptos has its grip on everyone — even it’s creator.

Sanborn: ‘Kryptos’ sculpture was ‘an obsession’

Articles reproduce at KryptosRevisited.com are for research purposes only, and serve to preserve the timeline of Kryptos news.  This article is not authored by or affiliated with Kryptos Revisited in any way.  Sources properly cited.

Sanborn’s Kryptos Sculpture Transcripts

The Kryptos Copperplate Transcript is available at KryptosRevisited.com.  The ciphertext as it appears on the copper scroll and the plain text discovered using Vigenère (first two parts) and Transposition (third part) are now available with easy copy and paste capabilities.  Spacing has been omitted in the plain text transcripts to minimize the introduction of interpretation error.  The layout of the plain text as it coincides withs its corresponding ciphertext is properly represented and is difficult to find elsewhere online.  The tableau is also depicted backward, as is in the sculpture.

Kryptos Copperplate Ciphertext (left panel)

Kryptos Copperplate Tableau (right panel)

Kryptos Copperplate Plain Text (decrypted using Vigenere and Matrix Rotational Transposition)

Totally Invisible? Tally I*N*V*I*S*I*B*L*E

Wondering if some of our word spacing could be altered for more clues.  Remember the plain text doesn’t have spaces.

HOWS THAT POSSIBLE?  IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE.

HOW’S THAT POSSIBLE? IT WAS TO TALLY IN VISIBLE.

Tally invisible?  The Morse Code?  Just a thought, nothing more.  My point is that maybe we haven’t selected the right word spacing throughout the known plain text.  Who was responsible for it?  It may have been overlooked in the excitement of someone having discovered the plain text in the first place.  I’m checking on other possibilities…

Should also mention that if X’s are periods as Sanborn claims, why are there so many places where X’s don’t terminate a sentence?!  Pay attention to those X’s!  You heard it here.

Kryptos Sculpture Discussion Forums

Another discussion feature has been added to the kryptos.info network.  Gary Phillips maintains a list of Kryptos-related discussion forums from around the web, and links to relevant articles are automatically generated on pages throughout the site.  Powered by Google, certain key words appearing in various articles are compared against a database of blogs and discussion groups, so if you’re hosting a forum that is related to Jim Sanborn’s CIA Sculpture “Kryptos,” post a link here, and it will get added to the growing list.

Gary Phillips writes about Kryptos at his web site Kryptos Revisited.

Kryptos Font Journal of Guests

So you’ve downloaded the Kryptos Fonts from kryptosRevisited.com?  The next step is to leave a note about yourself to the group.  Your name and organization, a brief comment about how you’re involved with the “Kryptos Code” and a link to your web site should suffice.  Don’t forget to link back to kryptosRevisited.com!  If you need help installing the font, check out the user manual.

Enjoy,

gary

Authentic Kryptos TrueType Font

A new Kryptos Font has been replicated!  Now Kryptos enthusiasts have a new resource to add to their tool chest.  Gary Phillips, the designer of the first known Kryptos transcript depicting the copperplate’s exact font and orientation, has produced an entirely new installable Kryptos font.  The Kryptos Sculpture Family of Fonts is a replica of the Kryptos Sculpture typeface comprising four distinct font sets.  One is monospaced for producing attractive Kryptos Transcript tables, and another representing the complete set of International Morse Codes.  The other fonts combine the glyphs from the sculpture for authentic copperplate replication.  Mr. Phillips has generously made these tools freely available for download from KryptosRevisited.com.

Learn more about the techniques used to extract the Kryptos font and the meticulous methods involved in reconstructing the entire character set over a six month period at Gary Phillips’ web site KryptosRevisited.com.  Get the Kryptos Sculpture Family of Fonts for Windows, Mac, and Linux in TrueType and Type 1 True Vector Fonts.  His web site  explores Kryptos and has reproduced content related to Jim Sanborn’s sculpture that can be found nowhere else online — an invaluable service to Kryptos enthusiasts.

Download the Kryptos Font here!

Sanborn’s Sculpture Kryptos in David Stein’s CIA Report

CIA Agent David Stein’s Internal Report details the methods used to decrypt the first three of several encryptions on James Sanborn’s Kryptos Sculpture.  The original document released internally to the CIA has been reproduced on the kryptos.info network, and an exclusive reconstruction has been been made available for download as a pdf.

Original details of this document can be found at Elonka Dunin’s Mirror Archive.

Sanborn’s CIA Sculpture ‘Kryptos’ on ABC World News Tonight

An excerpt from a television segment of ABC World News Tonight which aired April 2, 1991 and was reported by John Martin and hosted by Peter Jennings has been referenced in the kryptos.info network: CIA Kryptos Sculpture by Sanborn: ABC World News Tonight

The original transcript can be found at the following mirror: Elonka’s Kryptos Page.  Additional information may be found at ABC News.