Treasure: In search of the golden horse (SOLVED!!)

[labgo]

As I did each and every year since 1989, I spent a few days earlier this year looking at my notes to see if I could find the path toward the solution. This year (2023), I did find this path. And after a couple of months of work, I reached the final solution: the exact coordinates (latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds) of the Treasure location. This solution is not about collecting clues here and there to be interpreted as a real location. The whole process is much more involved. It is based on extracting and manipulating text from specific chapter sentences, using clues hidden in the sentences themselves (double meaning) and the map as a guide. Sentences are heavily self-referential, telling a story while at the same time providing raw text to be manipulated and information about how to proceed. This puzzle is a real masterpiece. At the end you are left with adding letters (a=1, b=2,...) in different columns corresponding to degrees, minutes, seconds.

The following links to my site, where I provide a short video as a teaser to the solution, giving a high level overview of the path without giving away the actual solution to the many puzzles. You will also find a link to a pdf document giving the full, detailed solution. This is a large document, as there are many steps to follow (I can see why the solution was not revealed!). Cryptic sentences in the book will suddenly make sense when you know what these sentences are really talking about. Although everything can be done with pen and paper and there is no fancy cryptography involved, the pdf document includes some Mathematica code that was used to process relevant text (such as extracting sentences containing specific letters) and provide a clean output.

(BOOK SOLUTION UPDATED TO VERSION 2 ON 2023-12-04)

(VHS/BETA SOLUTION ADDED ON 2024-10-31)

Treasure Solution
         


Note that elsewhere on this site you will also find a summary of previous attempts at making sense of the chapters in the book. Although this is now obsolete, some of it has been useful in finding the actual solution. The 7-31 on the cover and the ten possible arrangements on the clue card are examples of this. 

[astree]

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I am going through the pdf, very well written, explained, and laid out. Thanks very much for this. I agree that the Captain Nemo solution wasnt satisfying.

Mike Stadther, of A Treasures Trove, had claimed (second hand info) that he solved this puzzle, and that it was too complicated. I ne er saw any of his solve, though.

On the cover, nice find on the 7 and 31; I am partway through the grid construct at courtyard text.  I need to keep reading, to see 1) if you do anything with the XVIII and 2) INGOTRESTATESHSPESATA. (if i recall that correctly)

[labgo]

Thank you for your comments, astree. Someone on rec.puzzles.narkive.com claimed that Paul Hoffman said at one point that any 13 year old can figure out the puzzle. What he meant is not clear but I find interesting that my solution requires making 13 kites (one every year according to the book). The string of letters associated with kite #13 is the one that will reveal the coordinates when further processed and converted to numbers.

[Obsessed Jared]

I am curious what your thoughts are on the alternates to the rabbit card as seen in the VHS/Betamax and Laserdisc/CED. Each one was different, with the Laserdisc/CED version being EXTREMELY different.
For the VHS, the rabbit card only went 1 to 15, and the rearrangement was completely different (for example, unlike the book version, position 1 did not remain the same after the rearranging, but became 10).
Any thoughts?

[labgo]

The rabbit card in the VHS has the same property as the one in the book: it returns to the original order when the same transformation is applied 10 times. The goal of the card is to allow a choice between 10 different ways of ordering a list of letters. It does not have to be applied to the same list in the two versions. Only the final location of the golden horse has to be the same, the paths to get there may be different. I have been looking at the VHS version recently and I believe I know what it may apply to, but I am trying to fit different pieces together (COURTYARD seems to be the key chapter) in order to get something that works. Given the absence of long text, chapter titles are likely important. I have not worked on the laser disk version of the rabbit card, but given that chess pieces have specific starting positions on a chess board, I assume that we are dealing again with a way of selecting a row after applying the transformation given by the order shown. I also find interesting that some specific images (other than the obvious rabbit card) in various chapters appear in one version but not the other.

[labgo]

I have added a solution to the VHS/BETA video version of the puzzle, accessible from the same link to my site (see first message). Surprisingly, this was much simpler than the book solution. It is all in COURTYARD.