One of the first hidden messages on the dustcover of The Da Vinci Code was a set of geographical coordinates. On the backside is a set of letters and numbers written backwards to the left of the fourth comment. They are latitude and longitude coordinates that when reversed read (37 57 6.5 N, 77 8 44 W). The coordinates (38 57 6.5 N, 77 8 44 W) point to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. The coordinates on the book cover are one degree off (37 instead of 38), and the reason for which Brown had said that he might reveal in future books. Moreover inside the darkened area where there is a tear in the cover, there is a text that reads in its mirror image: “only w.w. knows.” Brown has stated that this refers to William Webster, who was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1987 to 1991. Webster is a graduate of Amherst, coincidentally the same college Brown attended. On The Lost Symbol “Fact” page, Brown mentions a 1991 document given to the director with cryptic text that “includes references to an ancient portal” and the phrase “It’s buried out there somewhere.” (1). Uninitiated readers will wait until almost the end of the novel to read on a CIA Employee Discussion Board the word “KRYPTOS” (475). The explanation why Brown was one degree off, pointing not to the CIA but to Washington, D.C., is provided in a comment:
Even though Mark said the code’s [The Da Vinci Code, TRB] lat/long headings point somewhere in WASHINGTON, D.C., the coordinates he used were off by one degree—Kryptos basically points back to itself.
Those who have followed the novels closely, will recognize that Brown had actually indicated Washignton, D.C., as the setting for The Lost Symbol on the cover of The Da Vinci Code. All these points lead to the open mystery of the sculpture designed by James Sanborn for the CIA entitled Kryptos. Kryptos has a long history and dozens of websites devoted to it, the best perhaps being the one by the CIA itself. In 1988 American-born artist James Sanborn was commissioned do a work of art for the new CIA headquarters. He collaborated with a writer to select the text and a retired CIA cryptographer to encode a message. This message was engraved on an S-shaped copper screen. Sanborn himself has said: “They will be able to read what I wrote, but what I wrote is a mystery itself.” The artist did, however, provide the solution to the code and presented it to then Director Webster when the building was occupied in 1991. The actual code has been partially deciphered, but a section still remains unsolved. In the novel, a CIA employee, Nola Kaye, re-examines portions of the message and the online discussion board. “Nola Kaye” has been deciphered on a number of sites as an anagram transliterated from the Cyrillic for YA ELONKA (
) that translates from Russian to “I am Elonka.” This is Brown’s homage to Elonka Dunin, who for years has covered Kryptos on her dedicated website.
The first of the deciphered parts refers to darkness and the ancient quest for enlightenment. The second identifies “who knows. Only ww.” There are also the latitude/longitude coordinates just two hundred meters from the sculpture. The final passage is correctly identified in the novel as coming from the writings of Howard Carter, the archeologist who found the Tomb of Tutankhamen in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings. Carter’s own words supply the phrase “ANCIENT PORTAL” (476).
Kryptos sculpture, by Jim Sanborn, at the CIA Headquarters
BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION 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 WW 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 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 (?)
[Misspellings in the original have been retained. TRB]
Only time will tell if the final message to this multilayered puzzle is ever revealed. Sanborn meanwhile has continued working and two of his works introduce a Russian element. One is called Antipodes which is half in English and half in Russian. The other is the Cyrillic Projector, which contains a message entirely in Russian in Cyrillic script.
CIA KRYPTOS TOUR AND VIDEO
https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/virtual-tour/kryptos/index.html
ELONKA DUNIN’S KRYPTOS SITE
elonka.com/kryptos
NOVA SCIENCE NOW VIDEO
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3411/03.html
WIKIPEDIA IS ONE OF THE BEST STARTING POINTS FOR KRYPTOS FANS
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos
