Walls of Tallinn Mystery Cache

There are still nearly two kilometres of city wall intact around Tallinn’s old town. Work first began on defences for the town in 1265, ordered by Margaret Sambiria (queen and consort of Christopher I of Denmark), and one of the towers still bears her name albeit with the unwelcome epithet “fat” – a reference to the size of the tower.

The current line of the wall however dates from the 14th century. At its greatest extent, in the 16th century, the wall was 2.4 kilometres long, 14 to 16 metres high, up to three metres thick, and incorporated 46 towers along its length.

Large sections of the medieval city wall still stand today including 26 of the defensive towers. Each tower has a name.

We invite you to walk around the walls of Tallinn. All you have to do is walk to the each tower, count whatever is needed and add altogether all the numbers you´ll get. Easy? On your way you can visit the towers with museums, exhibitions, galleries and cafés. Or just walk with your camera ready to get astonishing views of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You can start as we did by visiting

1. Nun's Tower (Nunnatorn) on zero coordinates. Count the rivets on door´s hinges and then you can go upstairs to visit next towers by the wooden defence passage. The passage is open Mon-Tue and Fri-Sun 11:00-16:00.
2. Next tower is Sauna tower (Saunatorn). Tower got it´s name after St. Michael´s cloister´s sauna. You will notice, that the defence passage, that goes through the tower is fortified with massive wooden border. How many vertical poles are supporting it? Walk on and you will reach the
3. Kuldjala tower. The original name de Guldene Voet dates back to 1434. Here you´ll have to count the rivets on door´s hinges too. If you don´t notice the door at once, that´s OK, it is somewhere behind the bushes.
4. Now go and look at the city wall from outside. The best way is to go back to Nun´s tower (250m), go through beautiful Monastery Gate and proceed your tour. Fourth tower is Behind-the-Nuns tower (Nunnadetagune). It got the name after it´s location behind the St. Michael´s nuns cloister. Here the task is simple – look how the tower “hangs” on the wall and count how many arches have been modeled under it´s feet for better supporting. Now you can move on to
5. Loewenschede tower, that got it´s name after the builder of the tower, alderman Winant Louenschede. Nowadays a group of artists are working there. On which area? You can see that, if you look the sign on the door. How many letters are in that word? Tower is open Mon-Fri 11-18 and Sun 11-15, so you can go in and buy their art.
6. Next is Köismäe tower, that nowadays belongs to Tallinn City Theatre nearby. You´ll have to count how many vertical planks are on the two-sided door. Got it? Now it´s time to move on and study the inner-side of the wall. You can do it by the breakthrough near
7. Plate tower, that got it´s name after chief of the tower Herbord Plate. Please count how many stone stairs lead you to the door and now you can go and take a look at Ukrainian Greek Cathcolic church of Three handed Mother of God, that is facing the tower. Or you can move on to
8. Epping tower, that has got it´s name after alderman Tideman Eppinci (Thiderico Eppingh). The doorway of this tower has been slightly different, than nowadays, but it is marked by tiled arch and some old door hinges. How many for now useless door hinges can you see here? Counted it? Good. Now you can go and discover the tower, where visitors can try on armours and make for yourselves a first coin of Tallinn as a souvenir.
9. Ninth tower is Behind-Grusbeke tower (Grusbeke-tagune torn). Here count again how many stairs are leading you to the entrance. Beneath the roof of this tower is located Ukarainian Cultural Centre with a project of Tallinn’s Ark of Endangered Species. Here you can find handmade toy animals watched by five guardian angels, one from each different continents. Some of these toys even move mechanically. On Sat and Sun at 11-12 0´clock the door will be open to the visitors without reservations.
10. Tenth tower on our tour is Fat Margaret with Great Coastal Gate. The etymology of the tower's name derives from the fact that it was the largest part of the city's fortifications with walls measuring 25 metres in diameter, 20 metres in height and up to 5 metres thick. The tower was used as a storehouse for gunpowder and weapons, and then transformed into a prison, and was the scene of an outbreak of violence during the 1917 Revolution, when the prison guards were murdered by a mob of workers, soldiers and sailors. The tower now serves a more peaceful function of housing the Estonian Maritime Museum. Right outside the gate is a information board about the Great Coastal gate. What is the first year mentioned on the board? And you have seen first 10 towers already! Now go through the Great Coastal Gate and around the Fat Margaret. The next 10 towers begin with
11. Stolting tower. In 1410 Tallinn´s towerchiefs list mentioned someone named Stoltynk and from there came the nickname of the tower (in Middle Low German stolt and in German Stolz). This tower stays in quite uncomfortable corner to watch, so you can walk by without counting anything. However
12. Behind-Hattorpe tower (Hattorpe-tagune torn) lays in a garden, where restaurant and garden Leib (bread in Estonian) offers you most delicious food. The restaurant have been elected several times (including 2015) among 50 best restaurants in Estonia. But don´t forget to count the window-panes of the lowest window of the tower.
13. Now you can walk on by Uus street and through Bremen passage (Bremeni käik) to the Bremen tower. On your way you´ll go through an archway, where you can see several logs upon the door. Count how many logs are there and walk on by Munga street to
14. Behind-the-monks tower (Munkadetagune), where is a home for another museum/gallery of Estonian design. Tower got it´s name after the location behind St. Catherine's Dominican Monastery.  Pay attention to the window next to the house number 58. How many glass squares does it have?
15. Next tower is Hellemann tower. The tower was named after Laurentius van der Helle, who used the place behind the tower between 1390 and 1398. There is a forged two-digit number next to the door. Write it down and move on to
16. the Viru Gate, that is also Tallinn´s officially registered trademark. Please count how many narrow windows has tower´s arch nearer to McDonald´s (both sides)?
17. Now you can breathe freely again, because Hinke tower is hidden between the houses and seen only partially from Pärnu road tram stop. You don´t have to count anything here, but still take a look at it, because you don´t see anywhere a tower like this, built into the houses.
18. In Assauwe tower there is the Theatre and Music Museum. The museum houses the permanent exhibition of music history, theatre and music archive and professional library. The permanent exposition is divided into two main themes: different musical instruments and Estonian folk instruments. One may inspect as well as try to play several of them. On the tower is hanging a museum´s logo, how many strings this instrument has?
19. Kiek in de Kök tower was the most powerful cannon tower in 16th-century Northern Europe. According to the legend, Kiek in de Kök ("peep into the kitchen") got it´s name from the great height of the tower. The six-storey cupola-vaulted tower was so high, that the soldiers at the top of it were able to watch the housewives and maids cooking dinner in their kitchens inside the mantle chimneys. Nowadays it houses Tallinn´s City Museum and we strongly recommend to visit Bastion tunnels there. Don´t forget to look at the southern wall of the tower, where are several cannon balls inside the wall. Write down how many cannon balls are in one row and move on to
20. Maiden's Tower (Neitsitorn). The name comes from the name of the tower commander Hinse Meghe which was later adapted into Mädchenthurm or Maiden Tower. Nearby is also a Danish King's Garden, where danes supposedly got their flag, Dannebrog, that fell from the sky during a battle of Lyndanysse  on 1219. You can visit tower´s café or just look at the information board next to the door and write down the year when this tower was first mentioned. From this yard count also
21. the number of stairs to the first door of Stable tower (Tallitorn), that got it´s name after stable yard next to it. Now move on to explore
22. Short Leg Gate (Lühikese jala värav); just walk through a narrow passage to the tower and count all vertical light grey bars with pointed tops (the broken bar also counts) of the two-sided gate door next to the tower. And now the last thing to do is going to
23. Long Leg Gate tower (Pika jala väravatorn). This tower was once closed with two pairs of doors. Please count how many gate hinges are left from these former doors.

And that´s it! Add all the numbers you got, altogether. You should get a four digit number – ABCD. The cache is in coordinates: 59 26.EFG' where EFG=BCD-527 and 24 44 HIJ' where HIJ=BCD-262

Have a nice walk! It takes cachers around one or two hours to complete the cache.

You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walls_of_Tallinn