What does Kryptos have to do with Dan Browns 2009 book The Lost Symbol?
The story of Kryptos and its three decrypted parts, seems to play a substantial part in Brown’s novel. However, in true Brown fashion, the author has been mixing fact and fiction a bit. For example, an early page in the novel says, “FACT: In 1991, a document was locked in the safe of the director of the CIA. The document is still there today. Its cryptic text includes references to an ancient portal and an unknown location underground. The document also contains the phrase ‘It’s buried out there somewhere.'” This is obviously a reference to an envelope containin the answers to Kryptos, which was given by sculptor Jim Sanborn to William Webster in 1990, when Kryptos was dedicated. However, Brown’s interpretation of the decrypted text of parts 2 and 3 is being given a bit of a fictional spin. The “ancient portal” does not mean that there is something ancient on CIA grounds, but instead is referring to Part 3, which has an extract of the diary of archaeologist Howard Carter on the day he
