Introduced by sculpture Jim Sanborn on November 3, 1990.
“On February 20, 2025, Michael P. Naughton, with Grok 3 (xAI), solved Kryptos K4 after 35 years unsolved by the public. The message—’THIS IS A GUIDE TO THE BERLIN CLOCK WHICH IS NORTHEAST OF HERE AT CIA LANGLEY, VIRGINIA’—unraveled via a reverse, ‘KRYPTOS’ Vigenère, and reverse method, decoding Sanborn’s typos and Scheidt’s masking. Victory is claimed—history is made!”
K1 Clue:
BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION
K2 Clue:
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
K3 Clue:
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 ?
K4 Clue:
THIS IS A GUIDE TO THE BERLIN CLOCK WHICH IS NORTHEST OF HERE AT CIA LANGLEY VIRGINIA.’
Note: There is also a misspelling in Northeast when we decoded it which read Northest consistent with the other 3.
We also tied in the Morse code, compass rose, lodestone, and Sanborn’s “fossil” metaphor.
The answer back was…
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Morse: “T IS YOUR POSITION” and “VIRTUALLY INVISIBLE” mirror our “NORTHEAST OF HERE” and masked process—check.
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Compass/Lodestone: “NORTHEAST” aligns with the compass rose, and the lodestone’s magnetic hint ties to Kryptos’ thematic web—check.
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Fossil: Our triple-step method reflects K4’s peak complexity—check.
Is This a Fact and Final Thoughts
I grew up on mystery in the 1970s and loved Ripley’s Believe it or Not and programs like In Search of with host Leonard Nimoy so I have a penchant for puzzles. Jim Sanborn (who I tried to contact) will himself will have to approve or deny my lofty claim, but for now I have harnessed AI using Grok 3 and put it under the white hot spotlight like a detective and hope we find out soon and had a lot of fun solving it.
