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:
7163131611
2675177615
5291092202
9816519686
2666506423
5893557871
5635553405
9215379348
4676145401
3933335933
5251542251
2306336298
0031330116
9517235003
9887835001
1343692911
9140435138
3285042153
9573665637
7342117247
8905789980
0793979301
9505702202
6302638258
8125767210
7902136276
9976178992
6216812168
2923592953
9388553583
0768117167
9418524422
9748524907
2723538790
5768195673
2368584614
8563958855
8097999909
1632123723
2406777706
2802128337
8037106222
8672949063
2526985122
1561975012
5294724791
0959764869
3891254932
1149981034
5241952544
1464774757
0939799399
7151222121
4898384848
3935131141
2836311061
1878203141
6503231500
5314135148
7201027001
1421111124
7117151741
6504303560
8333568562
0423735677
8411050750
0503183289
4620770647
8201101108
0350430358
9553555595
8439038088
7016119507
4349944493
7212552711
8851313588
9408059572
4722752413
3220344785
3035692772
2548344478
3683815796
4681563079
0542987362
0288520363
9281319933
7989181995
0243533504
3584955359
4608806006
3111122191
7845482574
2322237522
1145750174
2797237122
1614450572
8448257992
1566937472
7640652591
8978498899
2994397424
6838533836
2454555425
6154324850
2858297662
2998339559
8998065893
8838066256
3983389393
9513519583
9798678962
5851596615
9731078365
4623118363
2407519313
0911376682
2381988373
9277010276
9193051564
9201910922
3632412276
5411516564
1612231162
2717972973
6661610296
6464236624
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
1602325271
5704682207
5703463480
1701325360
3333333333
5701775157
1704171014
8796988872
1602612126
4524333492
4307848003
5078807857
9940994499
9080344255
5577335080
5184802721
6078931283
4020528722
3584752479
0522505604
6622592509
6558762924
1922591252
3712222714
4088888884
6652752552
0528508808
7532877500
7659697165
6660178394
7930900112
2470172044
8539858396
7959959595
6672167666
2660101222
5700100750
5211005111
8213228898
8708378088
8703729981
3715112385
8715298883
5708033115
8700757853
9903773433
8196581656
0944194491
1164717111
1164122509
2974525436
2964081924
8064908416
1043787005
7536287766
3587747820
7617578898
7737705664
9536773837
1737535557
7599999595
3682282626
7019217202
5407177804
7862326388
2889899882
6445554644
2869109482
7301669431
7301521810
5805422082
5449340827
5062525604
9999992999
6667674966
3102178123
3342875998
6648678149
8207172906
6087496903
8037602624
4095600324
8797955721
5951855904
4214495334
5525555624
7191993781
1180315384
9599050939
0323703327
0766376033
7223172734
8116911911
9592595955
8595988262
8526171268
0545394463
8016126490
7262967183
9418384692
3758581993
3353881263
2357471420
6239374263
4000401410
3444448453
2722287621
4949941994
2985113256
9778233216
0308335258
1943612186
1616133116
4284383284
8111212211
5591535159
6639339036
4476666674
9105815109
4289898824
6633133333
6439122664
9633104877
4009194871
6274243248
6009822059
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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