The following article is Part 2 of a six-part series on the Kryptos Plaintext discovery. The original free pdf document can be downloaded from https://stephenbishop.org/downloads.

TIMELINE 2

On 2020-01-29, Jim Sanborn released the NORTHEAST plaintext. And later in 2020, he rather despicably released more plaintext in secret (EAST again) to people who were paying him $50 to check their solutions. This information was released months later on 2020-08-23 by the New York Times.

PLAINTEXT 1, K4 KNOWN PLAINTEXT, where the “x”s are unknown letters
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxEASTNORTHEASTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxBERLINCLOCKxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On 2020-10-16, I noticed that the left and right sides of the CIA NHB shape were similar to the EAST NORTH EAST plaintext directions in a stair step analogy. And along with the already known Berlin Clock building similarity, there was a possibility that the plaintext words were describing the CIA NHB shape. Almost “drawing” the shape of the building with the plaintext words.

On 2020-10-26, I completed the Kryptos K4 plaintext discovery with all 97 proposed plaintext letters reconstructed from the CIA NHB shape.

On 2020-11-01 01:11 UTC, I sent Jim Sanborn the Kryptos K4 plaintext explanation document “2020-10-31 – KRYPTOS K4 CIA NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING VISUAL PLAINTEXT SOLUTION”.

On 2020-11-01 04:50 UTC, the document “2020-10-31 – KRYPTOS K4 CIA NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING VISUAL PLAINTEXT SOLUTION” was submitted to the blockchain timestamp site originstamp.com. The site takes SHA256 hashes of documents and submits them via transactions to the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains. The site timestamps batches of document hashes at time intervals, so the timestamps on the blockchains are delayed from the original submission time.

Proof of existence can be verified as desired on https://originstamp.com/verify. The process would be to download the pdf document from https://stephenbishop.org/downloads and then submit the unaltered document for verification. I’ve included details of the blockchain timestamps here for your convenience.

ETHEREUM Blockchain Timestamp: 2020-11-01 04:00 UTC
Ethereum Transaction: 0x663d23ce09457f8cec2a72827f14e1167af6b2bb2f0e8cd7fabd3fa837e37b14

BITCOIN Blockchain Timestamp: 2020-11-02 00:14 UTC
Bitcoin Transaction: 51b3c1c2e55a5275968e91e527d8d3d724e83c909230e8da805b7680c664a025

On 2020-11-02 02:57 UTC, the Kryptos K4 Plaintext Discovery was published on the USENET Newsgroup sci.crypt. This sci.crypt link utilizes the easily accessible Google Groups version of the public Newsgroup. I’ve included the text from the brief statement here.

“On 2020-10-26, I discovered that the Kryptos K4 plaintext could be recovered directly from the CIA New Headquarters Building shape.

PROPOSED K4 PLAINTEXT
WHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTEABERLINCLOCKEWTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSE

I’ve written up a detailed explanation of this shortcut to recover the Kryptos K4 plaintext.

The document has been timestamped on the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains for proof of existence.

For more information, please visit stephenbishop.ORG to download a copy of the explanation.“

As of 2020-11-05, this is the end of the Timeline. Additional Timeline items will be added if and when they occur.

LINK TO: KRYPTOS K4 PLAINTEXT DISCOVERY PART 3

The following article is Part 3 of a six-part series on the Kryptos Plaintext discovery. The original free pdf document can be downloaded from https://stephenbishop.org/downloads.

MAPPING THE KNOWN PLAINTEXT

To start, there is a problem with the Earth’s magnetic field. None of the CIA NHB wall directions are aligned with Magnetic North. Neither the “step” walls nor the “riser” walls in the stair step analogy align with Magnetic North.

Magnetic North is ~15 degrees rotated from the NHB front wall line. So how could EAST NORTH EAST be “drawing” the building shape? If the EAST NORTH EAST plaintext refers to compass directions, then there would have to be a different compass with a different North direction.

But we have another compass, the NHB front entrance strata stone compass.

This compass has an etched stone needle which is *not* pointing to the Earth’s Magnetic North. Instead, the stone compass needle is pointing to the nearby magnetic Lodestone. Let’s call this Compass North. The Lodestone is virtually offsetting the stone compass needle in a direction which is very close to the perpendicular off the NHB front entrance wall.

In other words, if we accept that the unknown plaintext was constructed with respect to Compass North, then the building stair step “riser” direction *is* aligned with the Compass North/South line. And therefore, the plaintext EAST NORTH EAST could conceivably use Compass North and Compass East to draw the stair step pattern in a similar manner to an old Etch-A-Sketch. Right is East, Up is North, Right is East.

The NHB Front Entrance stone strata with the stone compass etching and real magnetic Lodestone are located within the Compass North circle diagram. The trees now obscure the three stone strata.

But there is a problem with this idea. The plaintext BERLINCLOCK is written forwards, which we would assume means the CIA NHB satellite image would have to be viewed from the NHB Front Entrance (facing Compass South as above). But if the satellite image is oriented in this manner, the EAST NORTH EAST on the left side of the plaintext does not agree with the building stair step pattern directions of that orientation’s left side of the building (or the right side of the building for that matter).

Test this for yourself: Look at the above picture and read off the directions of the building stair step patterns lines using Compass North, Compass East, Compass South, and Compass West directions only.

Try the directions from left to right, right to left, both sides outward from the center, both sides inward toward the center. Convince yourself that you can not achieve EAST NORTH EAST on the left side of the plaintext with the building oriented in this manner.

However, if the CIA NHB satellite image is rotated 180 degrees and viewed facing Compass North, then that orientation’s left side of the building stair step pattern *does* agree with the left side plaintext EAST NORTH EAST directions (Compass East, Compass North, Compass East).

But then the Berlin Clock shape in the center of the building is upside down compared to the plaintext BERLINCLOCK reading direction. For argument’s sake, let’s accept the Compass North building view orientation and I’ll come back to a possible explanation for the upside-down Berlin Clock discrepancy.

There is still the matter of the remaining plaintext, but to some level of satisfaction, the known plaintext of EASTNORTHEAST and BERLINCLOCK (even if technically rotated 180 degrees) do appear to map to the building shape.

LINK TO: KRYPTOS K4 PLAINTEXT DISCOVERY PART 4

The following article is Part 4 of a six-part series on the Kryptos Plaintext discovery. The original free pdf document can be downloaded from https://stephenbishop.org/downloads.

CONSTRUCTING THE UNKNOWN PLAINTEXT

Since the CIA NHB is symmetrically designed with the Berlin Clock shape centered on the building, the unknown plaintext will be constructed with BERLINCLOCK centered within the plaintext.

To center the BERLINCLOCK plaintext, a slide to the left of 20 places is required. The plaintext wraps around to the end. There are still 97 letters. The N in BERLIN is now the center letter. The red “x” is used to track the original K4 Known Plaintext start letter position.

PLAINTEXT 2, SYMMETRICAL K4 KNOWN PLAINTEXT, where the “x”s are unknown letters
xEASTNORTHEASTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxBERLINCLOCKxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Since we have East North East mapped to the building on the new left side (Compass West side), it’s a straight forward process to follow the left side building stair step outline and add new plaintext in a repeating EAST NORTH EAST pattern. The single letters N and E are used to represent NORTH and EAST.

PLAINTEXT 3, PROPOSED SYMMETRICAL K4 PLAINTEXT, Left side
xEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTxxBERLINCLOCKxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Convince yourself that the correct number of EASTs and NORTHs have been added to agree with the left side of the building stair step pattern.

There remain three unknown letters on the left side designated by “x”s. These will be discussed below.

There are two possibilities for the right side of the plaintext. The first is to write the plaintext in the normal English Left to Right reading direction, in agreement with the released known plaintext.

The building stair step pattern directions are read off with respect to Compass North. In this case, the right side of the plaintext would have an EAST SOUTH EAST repeating pattern. I skipped this image.

PLAINTEXT 4.1, PROPOSED SYMMETRICAL K4 PLAINTEXT, Right side LR reading direction
xEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTxxBERLINCLOCKxxEASTSOUTHEASTSOUTHEASTSOUTHEASTSOUTHEASTx

The second possibility for the right side of the plaintext is to write the plaintext Right to Left. In this case, the right side would have a WEST NORTH WEST repeating pattern in the reversed direction. The single letters N and W are used to represent NORTH and WEST.

PLAINTEXT 4.2, PROPOSED SYMMETRICAL K4 PLAINTEXT, Right side RL reading direction
xEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTxxBERLINCLOCKxxTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWx

There remain three unknown letters on the right side designated by “x”s. These will be discussed below.

LINK TO: KRYPTOS K4 PLAINTEXT DISCOVERY PART 5

The following article is Part 5 of a six-part series on the Kryptos Plaintext discovery. The original free pdf document can be downloaded from https://stephenbishop.org/downloads.

ARTISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

This second right side possibility with reversed direction plaintext is more satisfying from an artistic perspective, and has the interesting effect of EAST and TSEW meeting at the BERLIN CLOCK.

Until 1996, The Berlin Clock location was in Berlin, Germany on the median strip along Kurfürstendamm at the Uhlandstraße cross street(the clock was moved to the Europa Center down the street at that time). The original location is close to the Berlin Wall perimeter. The Clock was so close to The Wall that there is a conspiracy theory which alleges lights in The Berlin Clock were used to signal the East Berliners, who purportedly could see the clock lights from behind the wall in East Berlin. The conspiracy theory is nonsense, but it is based on the proximity of The Clock to The Wall, and Jim Sanborn might have considered this juxtaposition interesting.

The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 while Jim Sanborn was constructing Kryptos. He has spoken about its effect on his work, and he released the CLOCK plaintext on the 25th anniversary. This aspect of Kryptos may be an homage to the fall of the Berlin Wall and that Time[The Berlin Clock] had brought East and West together again.

CONTINUATION

Due to the above artistic considerations, the second possible right side proposed plaintext, Plaintext 4.2, was chosen to proceed with the final step.

PLAINTEXT 4.2, PROPOSED SYMMETRICAL K4 PLAINTEXT
xEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTxxBERLINCLOCKxxTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWx

There are six unknown letters remaining. One possibility is that they are partial words continuing to trace out the building outline on the sides of the building and along the long front wall toward the Berlin Clock shape.

The unknown single letters on the ends of the symmetrical plaintext are partial words representing the sides of the building passed the stair step pattern. The partial words are (NORT)H on the left and H(TRON) on the right.

The unknown double letters on either side of the BERLINCLOCK plaintext are the partial words representing the continuation of the long front NHB wall, which continues into the Berlin Clock building shape area.

The partial words on either side of BERLINCLOCK are redundant. The full words EAST and WEST[TSEW] are already on either side of the BERLINCLOCK plaintext, and they already represent the front wall on either side of the building. Jim may have added the repeated partial words due to the length of the wall, or for the practical reason to pad out the plaintext to fit the allotted copper panel space.

The partial words on either side of the BERLINCLOCK plaintext are EA(ST) and (TS)EW, as if the words continue underneath BERLINCLOCK. Similar in concept to the Morse Code continuing under the stone strata.

PLAINTEXT 5, PROPOSED SYMMETRICAL K4 PLAINTEXT, with partial word remnants on second line
_____HEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTEABERLINCLOCKEWTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWH
(NORT)_________________________________________(ST)_____(TS)_________________________________________(TRON)

The parentheses indicate that those letters, from the adjacent partial words, are not in the plaintext. The formatting of the blog post will in all likelihood misalign the partial word remainders in parentheses. The pdf version is the best source for proper alignment.

It is curious that Jim could have slid the EAST NORTH EAST pattern right by two letters to abut the BERLINCLOCK plaintext, thereby leaving three letters on the left end of the plaintext, which would then be (NO)RTH. Therefore, Jim chose to leave one letter on the left side and two letters on the right side next to BERLINCLOCK on purpose. He appears to have desired this partial word effect.

WRAP IT UP

Having symmetrically constructed the plaintext, all that remains is to slide the text right by 20 places to restore the known plaintext to the given locations.

PLAINTEXT 6, PROPOSED K4 PLAINTEXT
WHTRONTSEWHTRONTSEWHHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTNORTHEASTEABERLINCLOCKEWTSEWHTRONTSEWHTRONTSE

This proposed final K4 plaintext contains 97 letters including the given 24 letters from Jim Sanborn.

LINK TO: KRYPTOS K4 PLAINTEXT DISCOVERY PART 6

The following article is Part 6 of a six-part series on the Kryptos Plaintext discovery. The original free pdf document can be downloaded from https://stephenbishop.org/downloads.

LESS SERIOUSLY

Jim Sanborn has spoken about another layer to the puzzle once the K4 plaintext is known.

Imagine Jim Sanborn had not released the plaintext words, and K4 *had* been cryptographically solved. The solver would have found the oddly repetitive plaintext, and presumably they or someone else would have realized the plaintext describes the CIA NHB shape.

The building shape then becomes the next layer of the puzzle. This is the decryption stage we are at now. A visual decryption of a visual encoding method.

The CIA NHB shape is K5. But how do you “solve” a building shape?

As mentioned above, the Berlin Clock building shape is upside down when the CIA NHB image is oriented facing Compass North in order to properly read off the EAST NORTH EAST directions. This did not have to be the case, Jim Sanborn could have “drawn” the building shape with the building viewed facing Compass South instead of Compass North. If so, the BERLINCLOCK plaintext and the Berlin Clock building shape would have agreed in direction, and WEST SOUTH WEST would have been the pattern on the left side of the plaintext instead of EAST NORTH EAST.

Why would Jim purposely use the 180 degree rotated image to construct the remainder of the plaintext, thereby forcing the Berlin Clock building shape to be upside down compared to the BERLINCLOCK words in the plaintext?

Could the next visual encryption layer involve rotating the building image to view facing Compass South? We already viewed the building from this perspective. Can another yet unseen similarity be found?

If we rotate the building image 180 degrees again, resulting in the Berlin Clock shape being upright again, there is a possible visual pun.

The CIA New Headquarters Building looks similar to an Owl. Please compare.

To be 100% transparent, an owl picture was chosen which looked similar to the building. But this was not hard to do, as the building shape does look similar to an owl. This particular owl’s rounded head and feathers also look similar to the cafeteria arches when viewed from nearer the ground. Your owl may vary.

In modern Western culture, the Owl has come to symbolize wisdom and intelligence. What better mascot for the CIA than an owl? The CIA could support local owl populations. Maybe plant some more trees.

But did Jim Sanborn recognize the owl/building similarity and purposely use the wrong building rotation while constructing the plaintext to clue for the need to rotate the building image and find the building/Owl similarity? Couldn’t we have recognized the owl shape without the wrong building orientation?

The issue with the Owl as a K5 solution is that, if the answer is “The CIA building looks like an owl ha ha ha”, then where is the question? There needs to be a riddle before there is an answer to the riddle. The owl similarity would have been more convincing if Jim Sanborn had designed the building, or if there was a reference somewhere in the Kryptos ciphers about an Owl.

The owl interpretation without further supporting evidence is far fetched, but still rather fun. Whether or not this was the intended answer to K5, the CIA NHB will now always look similar to an owl.

Jim Sanborn has mentioned that the K5 answer would not be straight forward. He appears to delight in vagueness and ambiguity. If there is a reference to an owl somewhere in the Kryptos ciphertext or plaintext, its not obvious. The final answer to Kryptos may be a subtle joke about an owl. But the world may never know for sure.

Stephen Bishop does not endorse this product and has not received revenues/gifts from this product advert – Old commercial about solving Kryptos K4

WHO ARE YOU

Stephen Bishop is a pathologically private person who has worked on cryptographically solving Kryptos K4 for more than 10 years. This is not the article series he thought he would be writing. He is currently accepting donations to fund the writing of The Kryptos Book.

Please consider influencing The Kryptos Book with a recurring donation. There is more to the story, and the story must be told… https://stephenbishop.org/donate/