Kryptos, Copper sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, United States
Kryptos is a ciphertext sculpture made from copper panels at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The installation includes four curved plates arranged in an S-shape, accompanied by granite, quartz and petrified wood elements that together form a courtyard installation.
Jim Sanborn created this cryptographic work in 1990 for the George Bush Center for Intelligence. The artist collaborated with CIA cryptographer Edward Scheidt on designing the encoded messages embedded in the copper surfaces.
Three of the four encrypted sections have been decoded, revealing poetic phrases and references to King Tutankhamun's tomb discovery, while the fourth remains unsolved.
The work stands in a courtyard at the intelligence center and is accessible only to authorized visitors. The water element at the base adds a moving component to an otherwise static installation.
CIA analyst David Stein solved the first three passages in 1998 with pencil and paper, keeping the result internal; computer scientist Jim Gillogly announced the same solutions in 1999. The fourth passage, K4, remains unsolved, and Sanborn gave four clues to it.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,057 contributors worldwide.
