"Kryptos" Sculpture

About the “Kryptos” Sculpture

James Sanborn’s sculpture “Kryptos” begins at the entrance to the New Headquarters Building and continues in the northwest corner of the New Headquarters Building courtyard.

The theme of this sculpture is “intelligence gathering.” It was dedicated on Nov. 3, 1990. Kryptos incorporates materials native to the United States. A piece of petrified wood supports a large S-shaped copper screen that looks like a piece of paper coming out of a computer printer. On the “paper” are inscribed several enigmatic messages, each written in a different code. The sculpture continues to be a source of pleasure and mystery for Agency employees, with a few taking the challenge to “break the code.”

A dark boulder wedged in a divot on a glossed over plaque raised from the ground.

A compass pointing Southwest, inscribed on glossy stone on the ground.

An up-close shot of the letters K and R inscribed in the copper screen with a blurred background.

A shot looking downward at the base of the encircled copper screen with an indented ring in the ground collecting leaves and rainwater.

A black hexagonal pond in a patch of grass with large slated stones, a bench and shrubbery on a grassy area.