Post Date: 5/14/2010
Motivation:
In the previous few steps, we have managed to associate many of the peripheral elements of Kryptos with the literary works of Peter Tompkins. The limestone piece, the polished red granite, the whirlpool (along with its description), the “green blob”, and the words “APEX” and “SOS” each have significance in the works of Peter Tompkins. But there was still one thing that didn’t seem to be reconciled, at least not to my satisfaction.
It is a well known fact that the strata and the pond placed in the courtyard by Sanborn form a nearly perfect line with the Kryptos sculpture itself. Furthermore, according to notes taken by Elonka Dunin, Sanborn has confirmed that “the front-entrance pieces were supposed to parallel something in the courtyard, but [he] was surprised and a bit disappointed when it appeared that they did not.” From overhead imagery, it is easily confirmed that the front-entrance pieces are nearly parallel with the line formed by the courtyard pieces and the Kryptos sculpture. So one might wonder why Sanborn went to the trouble of forming these lines. We are clearly supposed to take notice, else why form the parallels? What do the lines indicate? Where are they pointing?
Observations:
To answer that question, I utilized the linear mensuration feature provided by Google Earth. I started by drawing a line from the center of the Kryptos sculpture, through the (approximate) center of the two courtyard strata and along the straight edge of the courtyard pool. Here is a screen capture of that line:
Next, I extended the line out across the Washington DC area, like this:
I found it interesting that the line passed through the National Mall, so I stopped there. The image below is a close up of where I stopped. You can see that the line passes perfectly through the Washington Monument. Sure I realize that at such a scale and distance, one can take some liberty with regard to where they move the right endpoint without severely damaging the linear alignment with the courtyard structures. If you experiment a bit with slight changes of slope, your line can pass through other features at the National Mall, but the center of the narrow “cone of uncertainty” passes through the Washington Monument.
Knowing that Tompkins had also written a book called The Magic of Obelisks, I again went to the internet for some information about it. Here is a picture of the dust jacket:
I ordered this book from Amazon, and it arrived today. Here is the very first paragraph from page one: “The most stunning and prestigious monument in the capital of the United States is an enormous obelisk, named for the founder of the country, George Washington, a thirty-third-degree Mason. It is the tallest such monument in the world, 555 feet high, though it is not truly an obelisk, because it is not quarried from a single piece but put together from 36,000 separate blocks of granite faced with marble.” Sanborn has already acknowledged that the linear alignment between the Kryptos sculpture and the other courtyard elements is no accident, and I have shown that the line points right at the Washington Monument, which is a primary object of The Magic of Obelisks. Since it only just arrived, I’ve had no time to read it yet. I have tried to find a good solid review of this book on the internet, but the most I can come up with is that it is concerned with Egyptian writing and (somehow) Free Masonry. That’s not really much of a surprise, I guess, given the title. I’m also a little chagrined because this finding smacks a bit too much like the latest Dan Brown novel, which is clearly a work of fiction. But I am just following the clues here, and even though they are starting to sound a lot like fiction, it seems like I must take note. Unfortunately, this gives me one more book that I may need to consider to complete the decryption of K4.
Important Note: As I have already described at various places in the site, Peter Tompkins’ writings are “on the fringe”, to put it in diplomatic fashion. But just in case you have missed those references, let me state for the record that I am not a follower of Tompkins’ beliefs. Nevertheless, believing Tompkins is not a prerequisite for believing that Sanborn made reference to the writings.
Having said all of that, the correspondences found between Kryptos and Tompkins' work pretty much had to be intentional. This simple thesis explains numerous peripheral elements of Kryptos (e.g. limestone rock, polished red granite strata, whirlpool, green
blob, “APEX”, “RQ”, “SOS”, alignment of sculpture with courtyard strata and pool). Use of a book code is indicated, but even if that were not true, the importance of the Tompkins connection cannot be ignored.
Recently, I’ve also been wondering about the possibility that these Tompkins parallels are relevant to K5 (i.e. the mystery that comes after the code is cracked). If it weren’t for the facts that (1) the APEX sequence was rigorously derived from K4 and (2) the APEX sequence coupled with “RQ” is what led me to Tompkins in the first place, I would consider whether the curious relationships documented herein were ONLY relevant to K5 and NOT to K4. But the coincidence is just too mighty to believe that.
Perhaps the Tompkins angle is necessary for both K4 and K5. After reading “Secrets of the Soil” and some of Sanborn’s quotes about his feelings towards the CIA (for instance, that they shouldn’t “take things so seriously”) I can see all kinds of interesting connections to the rather eccentric beliefs of Peter Tompkins. And, by the way, I’ll venture one (tongue-in-cheek) prediction: The object that Sanborn buried at Langley will be found just beneath the “green blob”. You see, that “green blob” is a representation of the chromatograph of BD500, a new age material that is supposed to do wonders for your soil. And there is only one way to make BD500... you make it by filling up a desiccated cow horn with cow manure, and you bury it underground. That would certainly be one way to encourage the CIA not to take things so seriously.
