Clue Offers Insight Into Years-Long Mystery at CIA Headquarters

For more than two decades, nobody has been able to crack the Kryptos code engraved into a sculpture outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. But thanks to another clue from the sculptor the years-long mystery is one step closer to being solved.

Image source: Facebook/The New York Times

Nine years after the sculpture first went up in 1990, Kryptos fans had solved three of the four messages carved into the artwork. The fourth message has left thousands stumped ever since. Growing impatient, sculptor Jim Sanborn gave away the 64th through 69th characters of the fourth and final message in 2010. The word was "Berlin."

Now Sanborn is disclosing five more letters – 70th- through 74th. The next word of the puzzle? It's "clock."

It could be the two words reference the Set Theory Clock, in which the time of day is displayed in a 24-hour format and can be determined by simply adding and multiplying the glowing lights.German inventor and clockmaker Dieter Binninger designed the Set Theory Clock in 1975. It was installed on Kurfürstendamm in the Berlin-Charlottenburg district and has become a popular tourist attraction.

With that lead, it seems those trying to crack the code might be on to something. Sanborn was asked whether the code was referring to this particular clock, he responded, “You’d better delve into that particular clock."

And given that Sanborn designed the sculpture around the time the Berlin Wall fell, he admitted, “there’s no doubt I was influenced by all that going on simultaneously.” Still, 25 years after the wall came down, thousands continue to ponder what the fourth and final message could be.

Sanborn, who is now 69-years-old, admitted he might need to be  "a little more specific.” Or perhaps, as the sculpture stands at the center of American intelligence, he shouldn't.

(H/T: New York Times)

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