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:

8604488845
8654234377
0008047813
2008482307
5858125442
1204111114
0024000202
8603232288
5459495444
8808508810
0401616464
6209129112
9851398923
9203393929
8815958988
9803125167
0801651544
6801338982
6805997087
9245170240
5424020444
7146967663
6100565060
3027202227
3815738333
3110767797
3125981304
3147874328
6010071802
3424759329
9499201758
5019988902
5022992991
0213266786
3413701195
0292992212
4440220042
3029790727
5213952331
4519119145
4040328909
6503985026
4959900877
2023530019
8009549563
8553355355
4303646034
6020990906
3949939483
6103566005
8491859512
3329252968
4341294337
8883810726
8999906348
5329959925
3984648966
8091891888
9483222122
8845885484
7060670606
5587228778
3655853353
6576476657
5035159103
5070184478
3965170407
6687893059
5080415235
5637851672
0907900894
0993990009
9976551687
9902555029
0902500343
3908131310
9207099720
9670900066
6902598926
0296506296
6861468614
6126767215
4323552347
2218228085
2052558200
9098452380
2470427287
5417758080
6507828545
9370368284
5614476239
8552617905
8695687534
1206773945
8075017584
0080117805
0428270284
9983383539
6399116981
2388327338
4248846844
6554695564
1113318232
4335524530
4909954906
4934214964
5121310560
3110394546
4731916944
7785118234
2622962992
9733327373
5625996527
0913912093
9399993934
5655096972
3349362532
5073166923
7134413334
7001616929
0444773460
3314113548
3937390397
9134939434
7703772033
5958413398
4321293538
0695272368
3384539748
5964072337
3173013003
4507141705
3410212000
1108401149
4937979937
1573903298
3437382209
3173148738
4437002745
4933093439

The puzzle

Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?

3443313034
8981991882
5553915397
6969969696
2613115320
2453699822
1595561332
4823813392
4755461392
6061419482
1437243212
6218555851
3921712019
0009440094
2059199050
0051748315
1929813203
0451110757
2951762680
6439766223
4994880857
4964190264
0205138941
8216158205
6564548109
4504555240
6286026860
6018181101
8995588955
5361836861
1182512281
4673674636
0417407710
9301333990
0446770904
9682548729
4416404185
1181474342
4113436276
1447922578
5225331272
5235230216
8246677778
0539536862
4721382904
4326332334
5591339553
0230500303
8245222849
8729555527
8781131708
6919191633
5779797773
0300608364
0995995037
8330237337
1020591363
1797991634
8279035737
4656431087
7004073226
4391933026
5859353246
0390434077
8856858776
4833333822
7867678926
2424284207
7577151778
4747749077
6947024400
1945506743
2176856230
7147095771
2946588135
7365535575
7777077077
2970377737
1146814606
0226000602
8822509640
3381629648
2452428342
9845738662
2239278642
2626576652
0390429340
6266039602
8888878982
6966608666
6724442397
9685698956
9559996956
1996602196
9050575099
6613292996
2792542159
8646502996
0347496996
1708692995
7085480587
6936766996
6095800668
5286326861
6408558848
6985785628
7086738583
4406841710
5085835500
6486529080
0672656077
7976532436
0470882646
0401673865
4672584886
4421994444
7672577572
0976670966
7460866074
2370237133
2269199616
9979799796
3502335532
0575400555
1425335421
2575304454
2525780986
0129391210
2569345989
9265720533
9662666262
8466242664
1070170111
8394549533
6392130319
9464188269
8792154552
1362163675
6694134193
9372163296

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.

Tags:

Comments

Colin Edward

Big Ben

Steven Don

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.

Batuhan Bozkurt

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.

Steven Don

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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