Other Random Kryptos Musings

When the hint BERLIN was revealed I was 100% positive the next word was going to be TUNNEL --- a hidden, buried, Cold War operation to tunnel under the Berlin Wall and transmit intelligence underground using electromagnetism (wires) that was exposed figuratively and literally by Soviet intelligence thanks to a mole.

Then the next word was revealed to be CLOCK. Oh well, must have something to do with the "set theory" clock. However, I recently read the British code name for that tunnel operation was "Stopwatch." That's basically a clock, right? Misdirection? Coincidence? Helpful? Seeing what I want to see?

I also read some early Sanborn interviews and he talks about peeling layers of onions and sand grains in hour glasses a few times. The outer layer of the "tableaux" hasn't been used yet. I wondered if the hour glass comments could somehow hint at a shape or pattern, but nothing has jumped out at me yet.

K1 "Key" Rotation

Start out with the K1 ciphertext (I have bolded the typo 'K'):

EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLDKRNSHGNFIVJ
YQTQUXQBQVYUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD

Reform 21x3:

EMUFPHZLRFAXYUSDJKZLD

KRNSHGNFIVJYQTQUXQBQV

YUVLLTREVJYQTMKYRDMFD

Rotate CCW:

DVD

LQF

ZBM

KQD

JXR

DUY

SQK

UTM

YQT

XYQ

AJY

FVJ

RIV

LFE

ZNR

HGT

PHL

FSL

UNV

MRU

EKY

Reform 21x3:

DVDLQFZBMKQDJXRDUYSQK

UTMYQTXYQAJYFVJRIVLFE

ZNRHGTPHLFSLUNVMRUEKY

Rotate CCW:

KEY

QFK

SLE

YVU

UIR

DRM

RJV

XVN

JFU

DYL

QJS

KAF

MQL

BYH

ZXP

FTT

QQG

LYH

DMR

VTN

DUZ

KEYQFKSLEYVUUIRDRMRJVXVNJFUDYLQJSKAFMQLBYHZXPFTTQQGLYHDMRVTNDUZ

KEY QFKSLEYVUUIRDRMRJVXVNJFUDYLQJSKAFMQLBYHZXPFTTQQGLYHDMRVTNDUZ

Interesting... assuming the K typo was intentional, though personally I doubt it.

If there I interest I can clean up the python code I used to generate this and post it to github.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but I ran across this while poking around with Kryptos. On the left side I have formed what I think is the "original matrix." On the right is part of the "tableaux." On the left I highlighted the first 2 typos: K-->Q in IQLUSION and R-->U in UNDERGRUUND. On the right I highlighted what the typos decrypt to. Curious that they are the same distance apart.

Assumptions and my guess at their likelihood:

1. The J in K1 belongs on line 1, as indicated by an arrow in Sanborn's worksheet, 75%
2. The I should be to the left of line 5 as seen in the worksheet, 99%
3. The first typo was intentional, and it's position and contents matter: 1%
4. Same for second typo: 50%