Historical Treasure Hunt – APR 2 2025

My son takes part in Geography and History Bee competitions. Last year he was placed top 10 at the international geography bee championship in July 2024 held in Vienna, Austria. This year, he has qualified for both nationals and internationals for both the competitions. Nationals are going to be at Orlando, Florida from May 21st to 27th 2025.

Every year I create a treasure hunt for my son’s birthday. He has to solve a bunch of puzzles to get to his gift locations. GiS location leads him to a gift and a next clue. As part of his training, this year’s treasure hunt theme was history mixed with puzzles.

See The Clues

MOJA:

RNTAVDWEVGOD

Invoke the Vigenere Cipher to get start it off. You are seeking something to don and doff. What is Vigenere you ask? You may need to use google for this task. Be prepared to spend the time, else you will return with not even a dime. What is the code to get past this fiend? Just answer this question my friend.

This man was a. member of the first triumvirate. He led his armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war and subsequently became dictator from 49BC until his assassination in 44BC. He had spouses named Cornelia, Pomeia and Calpurnia. His parents were Gaius and Aurelia. He even created a calendar system that is not the Gregorian calendar. After his death on the Ides of March, his greatnephew rose to power.

MBILI:

Time for Rosicrucian Cipher. It’s not something that everyone can decipher. Get ready to read with your head down, else you will get blown. What makes it of more interest, Letters move to right making it a jest. By how much do you muse? Answer to this question, gives away the ruse.

This man was a licensed bartender and co-owned a tavern in Illinois before he became president of United States of America. He also was a lawyer, surveyor, storekeeper, and postmaster. He even had a patent in his name for a device for lifting boats over obstructions in water. He was the first president not born in the original thirteen colonies. He is the tallest president to serve at 6’4”. Born in Kentucky and assassinated in District of Columbia, he is the most writtenabout figure in American history with more than 18000 books devoted to him. He did not seem to have peace after his death where his coffin was moved 17 times. The question to be answered is not who is this person but what number president is he?

TATU:

This one is as easy as ABC, however miss a step you will be all at sea. Mark all the historical figures literally, you will see a pattern emerge eventually.

Oh by the way in this anthology, there are characters of mythology.

NNE:

Across:

Down:

1. Hollywood actor turned president of United States (6)
2. Only Black president of United States (5)
3. Norse explorer who is believed to have been first European to reach mainland North America, centuries before Christopher Columbus (7)
5. Giant hunter in the winter sky (5)

See The Solution

Heading of each puzzle is just the clue number in Swahili

MOJA = 1
MBILI = 2
TATU = 3
NNE = 4

Clue1:

This is the Vigenere Cipher, first described by Giovan Battista Bellaso in 1553, but wrongly attributed to Blaise de Vigenère. The Vigenère cipher encrypts messages by using a keyword to shift each letter of the plaintext message by a different amount. This shift is based on the position of the letter in the keyword.

Key word: A = no shift, B = shift by 1, C = shift by 2…. Z = shift by 25.
In the Vigenere Cipher table, use the letter to be encrypted in the row head (in blue) and letter from key word in column head (in purple). Encrpyted letter is the one that is intersection of row from encrypted letter and column from key word letter.

For example: if the word to be encrypted is WHITE and the key word is BLACK, W is encrypted as X (B means W shifted by 1. W-B intersection in table is X)
H is encrypted as S(L means H shifted by 11. H- L intersection in table is S) I is encrypted as I (A means I shifted by 0. I-A intersection in table is I)
T is encrypted as V(C means T shifted by 2. T-C intersection in table is V)
E is encrypted as O(K means E shifted by 10. E-K intersection in table is O) Hence White is encrypted as XSIVO with keyword BLACK.

To Decrypt, use letter of keyword in row head and locate the letter of encrypted word along the column. Now find the corresponding letter in the column head to find the decrypted letter.

Using Encrypted XSIVO and keyword BLACK B-X 🡪W
L-S 🡪H
A-I 🡪I
C-V 🡪T
K-O 🡪E

Decrypted word is WHITE.

In this puzzle, the encrypted word/phrase is RNTAVDWEVGOD. We need to find the key word by answering the history question.

This man was a. member of the first triumvirate. He led his armies in the gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war and subsequently became dictator from 49BC until his assassination in 44BC.

He had spouses named Cornelia, Pomeia and Calpurnia. His parents were gaius and Aurelia. He even created a calendar system that is not the gregorian calendar. After his death on the Ides of March, his great- nephew rose to power.

Answer is Julius Caesar. This is the key word that will be used to decrypt RNTAVDWEVGOD.

If we decrypt, we will get the phrase IT IS BLUE ROOM
The first gift and the second clue are in the blue room.

Clue2:

This is Rosicrucian Cipher. Each letter is substituted with a unique symbol based on figure below.The Lines and single dot provides symbol for each letter based on its position.

Example: A =

, B =

….. , P =

,….Z =

This translates to IJKTO

However there is a slight twist in this Rosicrucian Cipher. All letters are shifted to right. How many positions depends on answering the History question.

This man was a licensed bartender and co-owned a tavern in Illinois before he became president of United States of America. He also was a lawyer, surveyor, storekeeper, and postmaster. He even had a patent in his name for a device for lifting boats over obstructions in water. He was the first president not born in the original thirteen colonies. He is the tallest president to serve at 6’4”. Born in Kentucky and assassinated in District of Columbia, he is the most written-about figure in American history with more than 18000 books devoted to him. He did not seem to have peace after his death where his coffin was moved 17 times. The question to be answered is not who is this person but what number president is he?

Answer is Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of United States. So All letters need to move by 16.

IJKTO🡪 STUDY

The second gift and third clue are in the Study.

Clue 3:

This is finding all historical and mythological characters in the word search puzzle and coloring the grid. After coloring, once you look at the puzzle, answer is evident.

Words: Gaia, Alexander Great, Napoleon, Odin, Darwin, Drake, Isis, Shakespeare, Hera, Hitler, Marx, Curie, Archimedes, Lenin, Elizabeth, Mozart, Gandhi, Hades, MLK Jr, Nero, Zeus.

Answer is PINK

The Third gift and fourth clue are in Pink Room.

Clue 4:

Solving the Crossword, take the first letter of each answer.

It will be R, R, O, E, M, D, O. Unscrambling this, we will get RED ROOM. The final gift is in the Red Room.

If you are wondering what is Blue, Pink, and Red Rooms, they are rooms in our house based on accented wall colors.