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:
1140043010
2534666226
8435588345
2184919221
1133900437
2630610991
0333539755
2433421527
2134609202
3925932992
3683538533
0942662490
4853955533
3813709370
3953724649
0811984078
3943520712
4953523683
3339903973
4761161496
2277882758
2712552127
4824251477
5208053198
4798553356
7874561896
0409102328
8080064735
8665092216
8723552174
6284321794
3665356535
6721526527
9289189981
8083300388
6584088507
8096494176
5047390143
1095409679
1494323125
1746317914
6414264224
8045805888
5088585550
0590490400
6373373633
4775507541
9163152691
7696792967
0923473961
3224352637
7463002049
8354273633
8613192791
0773570570
4414848187
1910098100
2992797281
1760094582
0683578500
0760670597
9369378201
3500697140
9682226896
6767111176
6761667676
4149317914
6762344570
8747317307
4789891600
8111230312
4767381189
8600380830
0131013710
8585414853
4054555410
7568813493
5017320430
8344485753
8268316733
8465110498
9992733328
6115983773
7376350021
6675231078
1471133471
1881981129
6632335763
7750550047
8888883878
6950182178
5610754270
5695295827
7793616827
4194794177
8625656858
7117881277
1887812871
5256255726
5793776607
5311133036
9801382455
7881729177
7346373737
9515151150
5703753005
2748141718
9881444411
0711524717
6094723903
0624545436
6949502904
0749590054
1616919696
5024549504
4978699764
6691566516
1158404999
3804852768
4318109724
6008165135
0750117010
4868884848
6004000026
3312323333
0178440784
The puzzle
Given the above hint, what famous landmark do the numbers below refer to?
0248078604
7320784722
7653278588
3027098599
5179578591
4485594588
2288882524
7790971629
0087858708
7216051112
5126757561
4876954492
6766277514
8555154168
2900040290
9795179519
4583451834
2292447422
8119999861
8000898808
4464464446
4766777046
7818417838
2357362848
2316319446
1103917806
2209189066
7733989332
7526974352
7348630152
3038904077
3507973500
2318938921
7036936039
5747667407
7343949374
6886762887
0540345630
1149117917
0100910089
4810010637
6903242510
0186325887
4632040037
6340752087
8806366927
4394331501
8976725045
2274309913
4806334740
7204700244
2371613232
8996469646
1102505052
6827883680
5561740600
3109899333
5908299636
8676174681
3220209620
8583888533
8906990689
3636343336
8268959078
8712287140
8488784403
8762107433
2268998969
1516711516
6782187767
6442336438
8481001840
0771777007
2072020200
7755577527
3742333332
0772520705
3511921038
0778990615
7072970783
2551723752
5580720995
5329772281
4586747891
6805742112
2105750752
4384534438
8956008564
6526766675
5880158808
6825803574
6383567594
0824107864
8700636474
6613313664
9995109521
4644667484
8433131374
9266906592
3777676676
0024555800
5239452294
3958593559
0457581819
3259636364
3276415361
3057473974
8758177828
4631969133
9997888798
8828888302
5557776455
1632276748
8974668358
0392287345
0043079493
1658876332
6282903417
7802085475
3286194882
6309107644
9602992662
4226662662
6786070206
3689386938
7382122222
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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