PRECESSION

[zupzel]

Marc I can not help but admire your dedication to this puzzle.

I have had it for less than a week and am already feeling the strain.

An example is in the text referring to precipitation and the age of the sphinx. 10,500 years ago is quoted. As the rains ended around 6000 years ago does that mean they know they are 4500 years in the future or are we meant to be taking information given and assigning different events to them i.e. there is speculation that in 10500 bc the pyramids lined up with the belt of Orion, the text also relates to them being in a line.

I am finding very little factual information in this puzzle so am confused as to whether this is intended or just not well researched.

I am going to work off the theory that what is written is what needs to be accepted so outside research will just further complicate things.

I am also working on the theory that the 10 numbers/groups of numbers (it isn't specified) are part of the signs along the way. Logic would suggest they are bus routes, map markers etc, something you can chart a course by.

The other thing I am struggling with is the solution and how you pinpoint it to a square metre. The fact that the author has said you can submit the solution in any format you like suggests the book doesn't give us any kind of location data to do with coordinates etc. Given that when you find the spot you would need to have either a very clear description or lat/long down to 6 decimal places (anything less is too wide an area). I'm curious how, if you can't travel to that spot, you would manage to achieve this.

Anyway just some thoughts.

[Neil]

That's a good question!

For my part, I have long since given up caring about the prize. For me it's all about the solution. If I were lucky enough to retrieve the token I would probably give it to Marc as a keepsake

When I post stuff here it's in the hope that someone takes what I post and turns it into something much more tangible than I have been able to. I hope that others do the same. Sharing thoughts is probably going to be the only way this will ever be solved

[GeneticBlend]

I think with this hunt, most of the people who are involved in it, have been trying to solve it for years, and would just like to see it resolved. It seems to me that we have a good group of people trying to solve "The Oracle", sharing ideas to find the solution. Let's just keep the group effort going!

[GeneticBlend]

Guestess, thanks for the comment about how I have set up the forum here to help us solve this! I saw on the official forum that Pete Wilder came to the forum here too, and was pleased with it, and the discussions. He posted that he may even register and contribute here too! I think that would be great. We should encourage him to do that.

[Marc]

Yes Neil's idea got me thinking about how to apply it to some of my own ideas. I then posted a potential solution. I hope that is OK? I don't want to tread on anyone's toes. Neil, I think you are OK with that from what I've read in your post. Like you, I just want to see this solved. BTW thanks for the offer of the token as a keepsake if you solve it...I'd like that very much : )

Over the years I've posted hundreds of ideas, suggestions, thoughts and solutions. I'm sure that many of those ideas must have some validity to them it's a case of putting it all together. Sharing ideas is good and stimulates new thoughts, I presume it is OK to integrate new ideas into our own versions of how we see this puzzle.

My basic approach to solving this has always been the same I've explained it in the past on the forum and to other hunters in private posts. BUT for some reason it has not been taken up by others. I don't quiet understand the reasons why as to me it seems like the most obvious way to approach this. Here's a VERY quick summary of my approach...

When you go looking for treasure what do you do...you use a MAP to "navigate" your way there. There is only one map in this puzzle and "All Roads lead to Rome"
I 100% believe that the solution is numerical.
These numbers are to be found in plain sight within the mountain height numbers in the Romans picture (the Devil is in the detail)
1908 is NOT the height of Col de Tende this appears to be the lie in the Romans picture and adds confirmation to the fact that the mountain heights are important. Note it's also a date.
I think that the lies we see in other pictures, the piper, triangle, Orion's Belt etc. are about ANGLES
Using the concept of angles and trigonometry it's possible to draw lines through the Romans picture in certain ways that some numbers get crossed through. These are the numbers from which I believe the solution is generated.
This idea I believed is confirmed...if you look in Sicily at Mount Etna you will see that a line of longitude goes neatly through the number 4 of 3340.

Now obviously I don't have it all right as I haven't found the solution but I hope that gives you an idea of how I think about this puzzle.

[shrek]

Jun 24, 2018 3:19:37 GMT -5 Marc said:

1908 is NOT the height of Col de Tende this appears to be the lie in the Romans picture and adds confirmation to the fact that the mountain heights are important. Note it's also a date.

In 1908 the Olympic games were meant to be held at Rome but due to financial grounds following a disastrous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, they were held in London at White City.

Games of the IV Olympiad (possibly the 4 before)


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_Summer_Olympics 

[engr101]

In the Pyramids illustration the Sphinx is facing north when in reality it faces east towards the Nile River. The orientation of the pyramids to the Sphinx is correct (sort of) so their causeways should likewise be directed towards the Nile.

What looks like lines of dirt or berms around the Sphinx may indicate a section of a map showing streets or underground/train tracks or a build’s corridors. The frame’s “Where does it all end?” may mean they are the final location directions. If so the Sphinx could be used to indicate how the berms should be orientated on a map, i.e., turned 90 degrees towards the east.

[Neil]

That's my belief for the mistake.

The story draws our attention to it, explaining the myth behind the nose's absence and confirms it was actually due to weathering. The sphynx in the picture is clearly weathered yet its nose is intact.

[zupzel]

I would have to say that mirroring is the key message here as reinforced by the crystal ball. I would be very surprised if it wasn't part of the final solution.

[zupzel]

Another thing that strikes me as strange is that both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece seemed to be visited "before the return to earth". Maybe them being in another place is also something we need to look at.

[bellosthemighty]

The idea of turning things upside-down shows up a lot; in addition to the crystal ball, the "many worlds" illustration (interpreted left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is literally the world turning upside-down.

(BTW, has anybody figured out who the dude in the crystal ball is? The oracle is obviously Einstein, but the younger man I don't recognize.)

[zupzel]

I'm pretty sure you will find the image is also Einstein just a younger version.

[sarah]

All little hints in this picture point to the word "BOMB":
We got the numbers:
51 28 102
8. x 99
9 49 93 X= 36

Equals elements:
Antimony Nickel Nobelium
Oxygen Krypton Einsteinium
Florine Indium Neptunium

The common sense of this Elements + Einstein + Nobel = BOMB

The missing nose on the sphinx: It was BOMBED by Napoleon. But the bomb is just a hint for the position and a clue to a clue, I think.

The 8 is horizontal. For me another hint to "infinity" like 33 ...

[inatimate1]

From what I can gather, there’s definitely some sort of “mirroring” needed here. Orion is mirrored, the Sphinx is the wrong side of the Nile if taking things on all pictures pointing North. (It should be on the left hand side as it’s to the West). And the poem itself is pretty blatant in pointing this out...

“The Sphinx is looking East...”

The other thing that gives me the impression that everything needs to be rotated is the clue which mentions the pyramids and then says “turn around and look again”. I think the grid is important as “Symbolism is the key” I think it just needs a bit of rotation in some way. Plus looking along the top row, all of the gaps between words have a cardinal direction on either side too, I question whether or not that is also a coincidence

[inatimate1]

I am trying to make sense of the grid myself. Grids played an important part of the Masquerade solution, and I read that Pete himself solved a similar grid in the Masquerade puzzle only to find it was a "red herring" (I'm guessing that's the reason for the fish in the picture).

I don't think that he would do the same here, so my belief is that the grid is an important part of the solution. My guess is that things are meant to overlap and that we are missing the middle left and centre letters/numbers for a reason. Part of me thinks that Pythagoras plays a role in determining the value, the Sb in the top left looks very much like 75 if flipped vertically and horizontally, making the 9 look like a 6 in the process. Taking one from the other gives a height of '69' but using 101, 201 & 301 for the right angle and taking 75 from this doesn't lead to any whole number value as a hypotenuse.

Even trying the normal way around, the bottom line can be pretty straight forward, I think the bottom right number isn't completely clear, I can see it being a 58, which means the line reads 9, 49, 58. Which makes the length 49 and works out pretty perfectly. But then trying to work out the height of the triangle once again doesn't pull out any whole number hypotenuses either. The triangle in the Greek picture suggests the height it twice the size of the length, but that's a mathematical impossibility in order to find a whole number. But then again that triangle is showing that the hypotenuse in the square root of the sum of the two sides, but I can't find any way of interpreting the numbers or letters to make the hypotenuse a square number either, that's looking at it from both different angles that provide numbers/letters.

I guess I'll look into it a bit more tomorrow