MISTY Mystery Tour

Hieroglyphics, the Earliest Encryption

In ancient Egypt, hieroglyphics that took on the shape of plants and animals, as well as objects found in everyday life, were used as a means of communication. Seen on stone monuments from 1900 years before Christ, those hieroglyphics are said to be the world’s most ancient encryptions.

Encryption in the
Old Testament

Encryptions were also used in the Old Testament. One example is the Adbash cipher, which reversed the Hebrew alphabet. In this system, letters are numbered so that the first letter of the alphabet is substituted with the last.
* It is said that in the book of Jeremiah chapter 25: verse 26, and chapter 51: verse 41, the name of Babylon is written in Adbash cipher.

To write MISTY in Adbash cipher:
"M" is the 13th letter from "A" at the top of the alphabet so it would be substituted by the 13th letter from the back, which is "N".

By following this system, "MISTY" would read "NRHGB", a word with no meaning.

Sparta's encryption
(Scytale)

In the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, an encryption using a tapered baton named "scytale" and a strip of leather was used. The letters written on the strip of leather appeared scrambled until it was wrapped around the tapered baton and the original message reappeared.

Polybius Square

Polybius (201b.c. - 120 b.c.) a politician, warrior and historian of ancient Greece, also had a strong interest in encryption and developed an encryption method that converted letters to number. This encryption method had letters of the alphabet placed in a 5 x 5 chart with 25 squares (i and j occupy the same square). Using this chart, a 2-digit number displays 1 letter of the alphabet. To convert letters into numbers was a revolutionary concept that introduced the incorporation of random digits into encryption.

To convert MISTY to Polybius’s Square:
“M” is in the 3rd and 2nd row and would therefore be displayed as "32".

By applying the same procedures to the following letters, the result will be "3224434454".