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:
1706793503
6062132247
3216922547
2496670382
1133130801
3833839383
1262991542
0022222207
5267272265
4601606610
2081081220
6263722336
2108115200
2551984975
1108624486
2203608426
4601787023
6201161079
3811547681
2203879687
1603953960
4262921850
3842532833
2301902379
4663844836
6051006060
1241818242
7158991743
4811701673
0452971546
3377290779
6643396346
7833873873
9921991879
2309390623
7747704777
2365399586
5100576037
6268991337
2951491563
9913399313
1336116936
5398579583
2221211264
2922432247
5268865114
5742813413
2430118308
7738569658
7237131177
7438547534
6760260600
2034770204
5772858229
3229061387
7119201215
2915083496
2660520867
1920510215
7635006035
2166969629
5228222228
3319003210
3706232510
7327734953
6750236485
3957727700
7729792479
7350235055
3946839863
0007700070
6729797627
1182818282
7465564354
3288998223
6650111016
3100544771
6168595781
3483185399
6888479056
1482458541
0267265970
2832377932
5367091623
8560091492
7776777633
1145191452
7065567750
5519195193
6562214926
0058619770
0011552101
2230621311
0237303794
1191591111
2058925355
0037237203
5229332292
7230667230
7218730135
5250138332
3781430130
8524230215
3030330230
3043030035
2020020122
4558458854
3333663316
0203307023
1633457634
4486684486
3330997803
8088097904
2215687878
3584484039
9844304803
6418757683
4874148815
6928002969
4762272724
2883933332
4832960097
6785953372
2883539783
9878164969
5278253666
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
6984447488
9059190990
4855985545
0006999009
6585941124
9556466889
6903940886
0568890947
6089128118
4424434442
5590591597
2262167122
9533513957
6940493442
4632193437
7739193987
1202497587
3434391992
8008808808
1800888103
4699336592
4002332204
1440632803
7738838104
4249806802
6982638608
9933598692
0877164969
6845808504
6547452028
9877124938
6527155126
0862860888
9875778398
8877577787
3544444343
3373177333
5364566644
3887223389
7643576674
3867522704
7884181984
7854209434
5324559928
3365132299
7242113403
5654216235
4308316606
7497617909
6163116906
2006626009
7788887638
1443314403
2260623206
2272222867
1004470941
3884838804
1860110726
9886835824
7717910811
9577410865
8879712727
3082070812
5840726773
9808201130
5858032842
5874704249
5058330500
5940444959
8805888088
9291797291
5874008883
0263223069
3955274755
9868676842
9643320359
9955359535
1073404330
7645246257
3268738378
9868665696
3615465359
1844228881
2634226626
4706979779
3434900814
1115225181
2634245199
2645436358
4645419898
5838228389
6541966456
6767666676
9912992919
5862920845
5968278829
9738926145
6802364960
5911931535
3139324433
8057726737
6178858458
5414234598
7783538578
7252226457
8511154491
4234224993
2382373238
5773554818
5722680016
3715530065
1505527611
5705555505
5717353775
1563669566
8072522872
2729222779
5014451525
5290157125
8479589127
1989851935
5777557957
8188181184
4248528425
5599559937
0535909555
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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