Puzzle - First to solve wins
For years I've had an idea in my head about a way to hide some information in a bunch of numbers. I actually got around to coding an implementation and figured I'd run a competition. The first person who figures out what the famous landmark is described by the second set of numbers below and posts the correct answer in the comments wins $100.
The hint
Here's a hint. The following numbers are a reference to the Eiffel tower:
0659050925
7278487844
0420144112
2243333243
0244905931
2779407715
0578451703
2659904318
0453471619
2341522227
8867373678
6148116414
4733974974
8121303824
8343313692
4748373667
1838548494
6742312540
3754567827
0472799655
0888287076
1205817088
9835595628
5605669055
8867118647
6333396833
8117787186
9937449394
6367776730
5227295297
2202112402
6210815734
3265775930
0775542397
4480216490
5355312430
6205138374
0373567858
4075121111
9200563195
2303553933
0372103327
9208102298
6035533563
0800508000
4725533579
7195532292
7295406035
2745507088
4545555545
5094494040
2198998211
7725420572
0275475550
5253253255
6966569699
3331233313
4114991919
5966588506
4113918015
6977292916
6875245510
6954945346
4418136418
3633636133
7333111343
3738173481
3706231183
0229311853
4284472883
9784116431
8509111138
0696006669
3385435353
0833131301
0432553095
0883107354
2685499578
7322360300
0835024221
0333450983
8996828976
9912292724
4457954947
4013391304
7343892726
5797888770
2471452906
3683592904
8927005940
7172818722
1609889036
9098899098
2122911222
9109949401
1069983412
1179827295
2174848757
9008998485
4511518454
9159885901
9425484925
0007910679
8112415404
0750920629
0052928321
5937318447
6674920655
6303118311
7863466446
3751135717
9586356638
3506121720
9303132443
7553203898
6101891575
9806864031
0148542595
0304722995
9100731366
0300524812
5560356553
1100716101
0444644446
9808508980
0300000030
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1663358470
6603905082
0664191767
0662184084
1613113111
2606362626
0392999999
6464844480
3753653755
0969945776
0919594051
0476932311
3433744049
9513794339
8336998963
0669590000
3963093330
2453664465
7491371204
6178433513
0788511586
2533613153
1131111612
8888808583
0441331104
6536223156
1451514251
2794347340
0719190110
5937057757
7968557886
0964542740
0767318833
2799019158
2919092222
7966567875
4747744673
0101038041
0955883305
7727771772
3609831072
1752178671
6842163661
0964073642
7738433675
4012321088
0575955738
1584383789
5659091438
8588995488
2879952789
6371713760
1332811038
1211321739
4624744427
0578588878
5336333335
4384134121
5694106594
4346583350
5320319110
5638004904
6686353536
0038412116
7102215779
1988515417
4842495365
7459739374
6525112565
6464492460
1517754127
7567715716
6629062606
4493444344
4899666409
6945599545
6629583263
4493447576
6994514913
5999589836
4899587456
5825722255
2590590959
0002323002
3641716346
1640768158
2601471628
2045772541
5040522546
5602705609
5446444444
2455666552
6931461611
0666333660
0941341297
9456679509
6455474335
0456449898
2656499964
4810847186
1971797716
5035250023
3236772326
2514053186
3328042356
2174390123
1484780126
6926197316
6530344125
1174914223
4839296298
3054610185
0553590125
6992230692
6446446943
9999994289
1030110138
7888778863
5666325663
4490994729
3344558345
7057074963
0454924263
9391695929
0728058823
1800223763
Post the answer as a comment below. The first person to answer correctly with an acceptable explanation to how the answer was reached (rather than just a guess) wins $100, so make sure to use your correct e-mail address so I can contact you.
Note #1: People have noted that the numbers change whenever the page is reloaded. That's as expected. This puzzle is not an encryption as much as it is an obfuscation. That the numbers change is not important, as only the pattern in them will lead to the answer, which is of course constant.
Note #2: There was a bug in my post for a short while, which made the hint and puzzle basically the resolve to the same answer. This is fixed now. If you saved a copy the numbers before, just grab a fresh set.
Solved!
The second landmark was discovered by Batuhan Bozkurt, congratulations! The challenge has not yet been met entirely, though so I've decided to set a new challenge with the same method. The same $100 prize applies.
Redditor Bearasaurus has solved the final challenge too! For hints, check the followup post.
Comments
Big Ben
I'm afraid Big Ben is not it. But be sure to include some explanation as to how the answer was reached, so I know it isn't just a random guess.
I "solved" your puzzle, but I assume not in the way you wanted.
After giving it quite some hours, I failed to find any specific pattern (with a reasonable kolmogorov complexity) that would lead me to an answer. But in Reddit, you mentioned that you would be interested in statistical approaches that would lead to an answer (which I assume you are interested for increasing the security of the obfuscation?) so I exploited the fact that your website gives fresh batch of numbers at each reload so I grabbed about 1000 sets (with intervals in between, hopefully not causing trouble to your website, it handled the requests like a champ) and got to cracking.
Now your HTML formatting implies 10x10 blocks of data for each set. So that was a starting point when I first began looking at the problem. The grid is 70 x 20 so that implies 14 secret codes, 7 for each row.
I looked for what was common for each 10x10 block in each of the samples I gathered from your site. I found out that for each 10x10 block some digits occasionally never appears; for example in block 0x 0y, not all digits have to appear but one always appears at least once.
Once I looked at the remaining digits (that are common in all blocks at a particular coordinate), for the "hint", I was faced by these digits:
0485130
0021739
These are the coordinates in the form of degrees-minutes-seconds (dddmmss as you gave away generously in Reddit) of Eiffel Tower.
Once I ran the same process for the puzzle, the result was:
0295845
0310804
Which is the coordinates for the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Maybe this is disappointing, I don't know. If the website hadn't provided fresh batch of numbers, this method would not work. I assume, to strengthen the obfuscation, you could make sure one digit always appears at least once; but as long as the distribution isn't random, I suppose the answer could be extracted.
I've tried many approaches before this; I'm pretty confident that the pattern is not based on neighborhood relationships (as the answer can appear on edges, though wrapping around could be employed but still with it I failed to detect any patterns). I think it doesn't have anything (or much) to do with arithmetic on the digits (like summing / subtracting them). I tried various row/column patterns and couldn't come up with anything.
I also analyzed the 10x10 blocks containing the answer digits only once (so if the answer is 0 for that block, 0 appears only once in that block). But saw no obvious pattern at all. So this beats me in that regard.
If I am eligible for the prize for my answer, I would kindly ask you to donate it to the Doctors Without Borders foundation. If you are uncomfortable about it for some reason, you can choose to donate it somewhere else you see fit.
Thanks for the challenge, and although my curiosity has been partly satisfied, I'm still waiting for the answer that will allow me to solve this using a pen and paper using a single set of numbers.
Batuhan, the answer is indeed correct. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the one I was looking for. The method you used is indeed not the one I was hoping for, as you haven't actually figured out the way the coordinates are encoded into the sets of numbers.
Still, I'm not one to dictate how the problem should be solved. I will make a donation to Doctors Without Borders for $100 in your name and post proof that I have done so.
Since I would very much like for somebody to solve the method, I'm including this static problem for a second attempt, and another $100. Being in a comment, the following set obviously does not change and encodes a third landmark.
2626513077384364666346599932245309032974209496921885110948315551555613
6549028370497764766953274173448611231555969009312435020244378244262894
9308377132331493394457637801172312372974892873367485438142538547446457
5987478672136633636156339295109196283474021313920015080695500005010510
9318473400638833698356337893287640679475088481921818727043921551931599
5758758671181690400516397336912974972974211231362065019596695870416497
1701226107698865022553554534544375771374969996927993180831110067651597
3203310324331357320447629709425333533533932743923435767555759732852649
0008077080336367751344339394399228589625005440340517458583553308156594
7467243472134765226056779555595344734475199118911888022882025906466417
0332300493776667648725560571112261196221231229957486429403779342535143
1366338577707417047142278890548676887286598087756091175002210326130060
5863902088494574497542911473583959753975898054668946115111760583633056
3673921092972792959782223331128568968982838265801286279605628360969080
5301986352763553665223261861393193111359891776463941295493449120391390
0463999640662807648743557375531417213379281451584481179187119326988940
4352555243298062697573961379660934698929891289118894828988929160129317
1871110111741174649945428445570098658283038728302510575750510526949009
3326333663020967498782260828822839081251556075505536114445618120357157
5602990599311067698721073220721651596922796029092045295295550390501233
The challenge now is to find the answer and a step by step description of how to extract the correct digits from it.
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