Inside the Museum Mystery Cache
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One of the best things about geocaching is that it gets you to visit interesting places that otherwise you probably never would have. This geocache puzzle will get you inside one the great museums of the world, without having to leave home.
Cartoon artist John Kerschbaum has sketched a wonderful map of NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. It shows the location of thousands of art objects on display from a collection of over two million. Its main objective is to entice kids to become excited about art by challenging them to a treasure hunt. This geocaching puzzle, based on that map, is for kids of all ages.
Is it a Map?
At first glance you might want to call this a collage of sketches. However, on more careful inspection you should notice that that the objects are carefully located according to their place in the museum. The view looking west from 5th Avenue places objects on south side of the museum on the left of the map and objects on the north side of the museum on the right. Both upper and the lower levels are shown on a single poster. This is done by assigning the larger lower level to the lower two-thirds of the map and the smaller upper level to the upper one-third of the map. When all this it considered it is clearly a map of the inside of the museum.
Obtaining the Map
The museum hands out the map free to anyone who asks at the information booth. But for most us of who want instant gratification at no expense, there is a free version that can be viewed Here. This version can be panned and zoomed to various levels to make searching easier. The 50% zoom level is almost exactly the size of the original map.
You can also download the map divided into Quarter 1, Quarter 2, Quarter 3, and Quarter 4. These PDF files are best viewed with Adobe Reader. If you have a color printer they can be printed as four 8-1/2x11 pages and assembled into a full size map that makes an excellent resource when solving the puzzle.
The Puzzle
You are challenged to find the 26 objects listed blow. They are hidden in plain sight among the thousands of art objects on the map. This brings to mind the “Where’s Waldo” books kids enjoyed decades ago. The map’s instructions limit the search to twenty-minutes, but this is not practical unless one is extremely familiar with the Met’s collection. Luckily, there is no time limit on the geocache puzzle and there is ample help online, especially at the Met's home page, to keep you moving should you get stuck.
Solving the Puzzle
Before you begin, it will be helpful to familiarize yourself with the location of the various display rooms. There is a Map on the Museum's Website showing both main floors, the location of various collections, and gallery numbers. Next, for each of the 26 objects you must first determine what it is. For example, what is a rhyton? Online help may be needed at this stage. You can limit your search if you can make an educated guess where in the museum that object is likely to be found. Finally, search the map, hopefully just a particular section, until you find the object. Write down the quarter of the map where the object resides as a number from 1 to 4, where:
1 = upper left, 2 = upper right, 3 = lower left, 4 = lower right.
The quarter maps will help get the quarter boundaries exactly right. NOTE: One of the 26 objects resides in more than one quarter. For this object use the largest quarter number that applies.
The 26 Objects
a) THE TEMPLE OF DENDUR (Easy)
b) A RHYTON
c) AN ELEPHANT WITH A CLOCK ON ITS BACK
d) A ROOM FULL OF WRIGHT ANGLES (Furniture)
e) A UNICORN
f) A REMNANT OF THE MUSEUM’S ORIGINAL FACADE (Gallery 690)
g) A FOUNDING FATHER IN A ROW BOAT (Look out for that ice!)
h) A SPANGENHELM (In front of red dragon)
i) SOME SLIT GONGS
j) WILLIAM, THE MET’S UNOFFICIAL MASCOT (Avoid baseball)
k) The largest of several ARCHERS
l) A PAINTING OF THE BACK OF A PAINTING (Stretcher frame)
m) BIRD IN SPACE
n) A TROMPE L’OEIL FLY (Really tough)
o) A STUDENT COPYING A PAINTING (Juan de Pareja)
p) FUDO MYO-O
q) MEDUSA’S HEAD
r) GANESHA
s) THE THREE SHADES (It's in the sunniest part of the Met)
t) AN O-DAIKO (It has a rooster on top)
u) A PAIR OF GREEK EYES (Looking right at you)
v) A DOG, DRESSED LIKE A MAN, BARKING AT AN OLD BLACK CAT
w) A STATUE OF LIBERTY
x) CHOIR SCREEN
y) VINCENT’S SHOES
z) DON MANUEL OSORIO MANRIQUE DE ZUNIGA (And his magpie)
Waypoint 1
What you find at WP1 will direct you to the final.
Write down the info and take the info with you to the final.
WP1 is located at:
N47 32. [aa] [bb] [cc] W122 17. [dd] [ee] [ff]
Where a-z are the appropriate quarter numbers (1-4) and:
aa = a + b + c + d + e - 3
bb = f + g + h + i - 2
cc= j + k + l + m
dd = n + o + p + q + r
ee = s + t + u + v
ff = w + x + y + z + 1
If the result of any of the formulas above exceeds 9, drop the leftmost digit.
The Hide
The hide for this cache is the same as for my Opening Shots puzzle, which has now been archived. Opening shots had a great hide, judging from the 9 favorites out of 15 finders. The problem was that the puzzle was just too hard. Hopefully this new puzzle will allow more folks to find that cache.
After you sign the log be sure to return everything exactly as found.
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New Final Hide:
The old hide is still in place but you can't get to the log.
The new hide is in plain sight with the word "ACE" on it.
You no longer need to bring and return an object from WP1.
Instead just write down the information found at WP1 and bring that to the final.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Chmmyr: Uvagf va cneragurfvf sbyybj fbzr bs gur 26 bowrpgf.
Chmmyr: 26 bowrpgf fubja va ab cnegvphyne beqre va 4 hcybnqrq vzntrf (zvav1-4).
Svany Uvqr: Uvagf qvfcynlrq va trbpurpx jvgu pbeerpg JC1 pbbeqvangrf.
Svany Uvqr: Ybbx ybj qbja.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures