KRYPTOS SCULPTURE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06498615
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2017
• Case Number: F-2016-00621
• Publication Date: September 23, 2014

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ryptos Sculpture
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From Intellipedia
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Kryptos:is the time of the
sculpture by James Sanborn in the inner
Cafeteria courtyard of the CIA
headquarters building in Langley;
Virginia. It was�dedicated,OnNovember
1; 1990. Its most prominent feature is
an eight-foot-high *S-shaped .screen with
characters as shown in the
(below) which make up four encrypted
messages which posed a challenge to
many analysts for several years.
References to kryptOs are included
on the-front and back Covers of Dan
Brown's book, The Da Vinci ;Cade.,
There is Speculation a forthcoming
book may feature the 'mystery
surrounding=the Kryptos Sculpture.
Kryptos in the CIA Courtyard
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In November of 2010, in order to speed up the process ofgetting the punle solved, Sanborn provided
The New York Times With the -answers" to Six letters in .the sculpture's final passage. The .characters that are
the64tlithrOugh -69th in the final series on the sculpture read Nypv-rr. When deciphered, they read
BERLIN. I I
Contents
� I "-Icry,ptos'' Story
� /About .the Artist
� 3 The Sculpture
� 4 CracIdng" the Code
1 5 See also
� 5.1 Intent*.
2! 52 Internet
� 6 References
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"Kryptos" Story
Before the New Headquarters Building (NHB) was finished in .190l, thought was'given to enhancing the
new structure with artwork that was not only pleasing to the eye, but indicative of the Central Intelligence
Agency's work. Under Federal construction guidelines, a 'small portion of the cost of the new 'building Was
set 'aside 'to commission Original art for the struCture.
To achieve the goal ofacquiring fitting artwork for NHB, the CIA Vine Arts Commission recommended
that the Agency utilize the services of the Art-in-Architecture program of the General Services
Administration (GSA). This is a Federal program which has managed the Creation of contemporary art for
Government buildings for More than 25 years and which has resulted in highly acclaimed Works, GSA
formed ,a team composed id experts led by the National Endowment for the Arts and members of the CIA
Fine Art&Commission and other Agency. employees.
Before. starting the taSkrthe Agency side of the -joint team developed a Statement of Principles:
"People-arejhe principal resource of the, Central Intelligence Agency. It is their intellectual
and physical energies that ultimately provide the national poliernakers with 'superior
information and analyses�the basis to formulate policies necessary to maintain this country's
position in the world An esthetically pleasing work environment at its Headquarters is an
importantstimulus to the effOrts of those officers assigned here,"
They also listed these key thoughts:
� Art at the CIA should reflect in all its positive aspects.
� lt,Should-engender feelings of well-being, hope
II It should be forceful in style and manner.
� It Should be worldly yet have identifiable American roots in concept, materials, representation, and
so forth.
These principles Were the guidelines that artistS followed as they Competed for the $250,000 commission to
design artwork ibr,the:New Headquarters 'Building. The-combined,NEA and CIA-panel evaluated each
entry and, in November 1988, chose local artist James,Sanborres- conception of "kryptos" (Greek for
"hidden"),4.twe,part,Sculpture located at the main entrance to NI1B and in the courtyard between NH8
and the Original Headquarters Building (oliB) cafeteria.
About the Artist
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James-Sanborn is a 'vii� ashingtc0,..13.C., born artist-with a Bachelor of Arts degtee fiorn-Randolph-Macon
College and a Master of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute. Mt Sanborn is noted for his work with American
stone and.related materials that-evoke a sense of mystery and the forces'of nature.
To give shape to "Kryptos," Sanborn chose polished red granite, quartz, copperplate, lodestone, and
petrified wood. After reading extensively on the.subject:of intelligence. and Cryptography, Mt Sanborn
decided to interpret the subject in terms of how information is accrued throughout the ages. In the case of
the Iwo-part sculpture, information is symbolized in the chemical and physical effects that produced the
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materials and in other more literal ways.
To produce the code for `Kryptos," Mr. 'Sanborn worked for four Months with a retired CIA cryptographer,
to devise thecodes used in the sculpture. Mr. Sanborn wrote the text to be coded in (b)(3)
collaboration With :a prominent fiction writer.
The Sculpture
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At the entranee�:to. the New Headquarters building, the sculpture begins with two red granite and
copperplate constructions which flank the walkway from the parking deck. These. stones appear as pages
jutting from the earth-with copperplate -'between the pages' on which there are three phrases in
International Morse code invisible,�shadowforceS, and lucid memory) and ancient ciphers.
There is also -a lodestone (a naturally magnetized rock) co-located witha.navigational compass rose
engraved in a-stone slab. The engraved compass needle points at the lodestone, not at magnetienorth. In
the courtyard, a calm, reflective pool of water lies between two layered slabs of granite and tall grasses.
Directly across from thiiisthe centerpiece of "Kryptos," a-piece of petrified wood supporting an S-shaped
copper.screen surrounding a bubbling pool ofwater:
� The petrified tree Symbolizes the trees that once `stood on the site Of the sculpture and that were the
,source of materials on Which written language has been recorded.
� The bubbling pool symbolizes information being�disseininated:with the destination being unknown.
� The copperplate screen has approximately '2,00 alphabetic letters cut into it.
The sculpture iSlike a history 'of cryptography. The left side of the eoppericreen,:the firsttwo 'sections, is a
table for deciphering and encipheringcode, a method developed by the 16th century French cryptographer
BlaiSe:de,Vigenere. The Vigenere method substitutes letters throughout the message by shifting from one:
alphabet order to another with each Jetter,Of the key., Part of the right side of sculpture uses the table
from theieft side, and another portion uses the 'cryptographic method of transposing letters or changing
their position ma mesSage according to whatever method the Writer devised:
James Sanborn once said "They will be able to read what I wrote, but what I wrote is a mystery itself."
Only time Will tell if the final message to-this multi-layered plink is ever revealed.
Cracking the Code
nDuring the tenure of
DCI William Webster,
artist James Sanborn
gave Judge -Webster a
sealed envelope with
the-decryption inside,
challenging all visitors
to solve, the pii771e(2).
When theagehey
0
0 a= a E=!* rt=1
.00CD- *a 4CpV .400 Oa=
6=0 c .C.i?0
Oa= 4=-0 0000 Oats 0
CDO t=0 M-P00 a t=ti
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released the, enciphered Morse Code on Kryptos- by
textand a frenzy
erupted in the crypt�
world as some of the best--and wackiest--cryptanalYtietalent set to work. But it took them more than
seven years not the few months Sanborn had expected, to crack sections K I, K2, and K3.
At long last., an Agenty analyst calm forward with the' way to crack Most Of the
code _a DI/011 air-defense laser analyst, .sent 400 hours working-by
hand on his own time. In an hour-long presentation he revealed his partial solution.
to a packed Headquarters Auditorium on 20 March 1998..The-presentation was
decoding the majOrity Of the message, retseontent, and illustrate how'
entitled Cracking the Courtyard Crypto. explained the methods he used in
cryptanalysis canfostercreative problem solving. PI.
old What's News that during the 499 hours he devoted to the task, he
discovered that the sculpture is actually a "puzzle 'Within aptwle"�the deciphered
messageprOvides-enigmatic clues for an ultimate solution to the mystery. By
recounting the story of how he first broke out the code, opedthat his
briefing would spark interest. in .solving the remainder of the puzzle ecently learned that as part of a
"gentleman's challenge" from the then-DCI,-D/NSA put three pro estional NSA cryptanalysts on the case.
They solved most, but not all, of the puzz1e123..
But not a word of thecracked.Code leaked to the preSS. in"1999,)im .Gillogly, an LA-area Cryptanalyst
used a Pentium II computer ancl�sorne custom software to track the same three 'sections. When news of
Gillogly!s .success brakei the CIA publicincF7earliet crack.
But if anyone expected that solving the first three _sections would lead to 'a quick --resolution of
the whole puzzle, their hopes were soon dashed. The partial solutions only deepened the
confusion.
K1 is a passage written by Sanborn. "I tried to make it sound good andbeinscrutableenough
to be interesting," he says.. Judge for yourself how well he did "Between subtle shading and
the absence of light lies the nuance of iqluSion." Yes, iqlusion--one Of several misspellings that
Sanborn says are intentional The second section reads like a-telegraph transmission. There'sa
reference to a magnetic field and information transmitted to a '-specific latitude andlongitude�
geo-coordinatesfor a location a couple-ofhundred feet south Of the Sculpture itself (a 'spot
where nothing of apparentinterestlies)
3 paraphrases a -diary-entry-of anthropologist Howard Carter from his 1922 discovery of King
Tut's tomb, ending with a question ."Can you See anything'?" When Gillogly turned up that
passage, he says, he had "the same excitement and exultation that Carter described in a way,
it seems that the plaiptextis a 'metaphor for the work of the code breaker, or perhaps of the
CIA itself:"141
The 97 Characters of K4,rernainimpenetrable . They have-become,:as one would-be cracker
calls it, the Everest Of codes. Bothnd Sanborn confirinThattheyintended the final
segment to be the biggest challenge. Thereare_endless theories about how to solve it Is access
to the sculpture required?ls the -Morse cOdea clueTEverraspectof the project has come.
under electron-microscopic scrutiny, as "thousands ofpeople�hardcore cryptographers and
amateur.code breakers alike--have taken a whack at it Some NAT gone off the deep end: A
Michigan Man abandoned his computer-software business to do construction so hest have
more time to work on it Thirteen hundred members of fanatical Yahoo group try to move the
ball forward with everything from complex math to astrology. One typical Kryptos maniac- is
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Randy Thompson, a 41-year-old physicist who has devoted three years to the problem: "I think
Pm onto the solution," he says. "It could happen tomorrow, or it could take the rest of my life."
Meanwhije,.some of the seekers are getting tired; "I just Avant tosee-itsolved," says Elanka
Dwain, a:50-year-oldSt. Louis game developer who runs.a clearing,housesite for Krypts
information and:gossip. "I want itoff my plate."151
Making the effort more complicated is the fact that the puzzle maker is alive and, in theory at
least; a potential resource. For year& there has been a delicate pas de deux between-the artist
and the rabid Kryptos community. Every-word Sanborn utters is eagerly examined for hints.
But they also have to wonder whether he's trying to help them or throw them off track
says that this process parallels the Work of the CIA: "The intelligence picture includes mirrors
and obfuscation." [61.
Though Sanborn's usual practice is to stay in the background; every $o Often .he feels obliged to
comment. In 2005, he refuted-author Dan Brovvres.clairn that the "WW" in the plaiittext of K3
could be inverted to "MM," implying Mary Magdalene. (Brown included pieces of I(ryptos.on
the book jacket Of The Da. Vinci Code and has hinted that his riext noverwill draw on the CIA
sculpture, a prospect that deeply .annoys Sanbom.)(71
Intentional or not, Saitorni$ comments lack thereof) seem to generate an added layer of:
confusion. Even a Straightforward question, like who besides him knows the solution, opens up
new wormholes; The official story is that Sanborn shared the answer with only :oneTersOn,the
CIA director at the time, William Webster Indeed, the decoded K3 text reads in part, "Who
knows the exact location only -WW." Sanborn has confirmed that these 'letters refer to Webster
(not:Mary Magdalene).,And in 1900, Webster himselftold The New York Tunes that the
solution wa.51"philosophical and obscure:" But. Sanborn also claims That the envelope he gave
Webster didn't contain the complete ansWer.'"Nobody has it all," he says. "I tricked them."181
See-also
Intelink
� Kg.ptos Virtual Totir 0 (see
Internet)
� CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, The Puzzle at .CIA Head-quarters: Cracking the Courtyard
Crypt
Internet
� "Mission Impossibld: The Code Even the CIA Can't Crack," 'Steven Levy, �WIRED,,May 2009
� Wikipedia: "Kryptos" (which provides solutions for the first three panels)
� "Solving the Enigma Of Kryptos;" Kith'etter,, WIRED, 21 Jan 2005'
littp://www.yviired.torn/cqlture/lifestyleinews/2005./01/66334
� "Typo Confounds,Kryptos Sleuths," Kim Zetter, WIRED, 20 April 1006
http://www,*ir-c0:01iilsciience/discitiyerieVnew020,06/04n0701
� Kryptps Virtual Tour at https://wvvw.cia.gOviabout-eiaNittual-totolkryptoVitidex:html
References
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1. t Kryptos Clue :Revealed, New York Times via IC Blog. 22 November2010------ --(b) (3) -P. L. 86-36
e,".�
2.02.1 2.
2. I 2.2 What's The Secret Of the Kryptos Sculpture? Find outon March 26
What's News, March 16; 1998
1 1 Mission Impossible: 'the Code Even the CIA Can't Crack: Steven Levy. Wired corn 20 Ann 2009,
4. 1 mission Impossible: '1 he Code Even the CIA Can't Crack, Steven.Levv, Wired.com, 20 April 2009,
Mission Impossible: The Code Even the CIA Can't Crack S Le
009,
6. I mission Impossible: The Code Even the CIA-Can't Crack, Steven Levy, Wired;coni, '20 April 2009,.
ission mpg! e: c, yen the CIA Cant Crack, Steven Levy, Wired:coin, 20.April 2009,
SU' Mission Impossible: The Code: Even the -CIA Can't Crack SteVen.LeV - 'Wired.com. 20_Apn112, 009;
Left Side Text of Klett side Text of
KryptoS
Retrieved fro
KrYptot
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