Kryptos
A copper scroll in a CIA courtyard has held an unsolved cipher since 1990 — three of four messages cracked, one still defeating every codebreaker on earth.
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Jim Sanborn's S-shaped copper screen, positioned outside the CIA cafeteria, carries four encrypted passages with letters physically cut through the metal. The fourth remains one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. The artist has issued four clues and hinted a fifth message will only reveal itself after the first four are decoded.
What to look for
- The vertical S-shaped copper screen with 26 Latin letters and question marks cut clean through the plate — it resembles a scroll emerging from a printer
- Granite slabs near the entrance with copper sheets inside them carrying Morse code messages
- A stone slab engraved with a compass rose pointing to a lodestone
Located on CIA headquarters grounds (George Bush Center for Intelligence) in Langley, Virginia — verify public access before making the trip.
Kryptos is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Washington, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Washington pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Washington
- White HouseBritish forces torched it in 1814. It has been the U.S. president's home and office ever since.
- The PentagonDesigned and built in 16 months during World War II — 17.5 miles of corridors, a five-acre central courtyard, and a 9/11 memorial at the exact point of impact.
- United States CapitolEvery street address in Washington DC radiates outward from this building — it is literally the zero point of the city.
- Washington MonumentThe faint color seam partway up the shaft marks where construction stopped for 23 years.
- Smithsonian InstitutionBritish scientist James Smithson left a bequest that became 157 million objects, 21 museums, and a zoo — almost all free to walk into.
- Arlington National CemeteryThe ground holding 400,000 graves was seized from Robert E. Lee's own family over an unpaid tax bill in 1864.