Only today I discovered the mapping of ancient starmaps on Google Sky (in Google Earth), how amazing! For all those tens of thousands of years our forefathers had only this to orientate themselves (before GPS ). Stunning how this is mapped.

One of these days I’m going to learn all of this, its amazing that this is no longer part of our school curriculum.

I decided to start again with "the Unknown" on thestonemonument . (read my previous blog about it here ).

So I fairly quickly solved 7 out of the 9 puzzles of the Unknown: Celebrity Status, Gravity, Enlightenment, The Watchers, Eye of the Storm, Top Secret and The Movement. (For the movement I got a nudge on the forum and I remembered the answer I gave years ago).

Puzzle "The Matador" took me some longer time. But I solved it some moments ago. I really had to put the word(s) correct. I didn’t do that the first time so I dwelled for some time in all kinds of directions. But what the heck, I am happy

On to the last puzzle "Entertainment Value". If I solve this one then I have solved all puzzles of "The Unknown" and I will then allow myself to enter the big enigma. update: Solved all!

my nudges (only if you really need them):

The Unknown

• 1Z The Matador: notice the color of the money
• 1X Gravity: too easy for a nudge
• 1W Celebrity Status: Mulder would like it
• 1Y Enlightment: one percent inspiration
• 2X Watchers: McDonalds would like it
• 2Y Eye of the Storm: too easy for a nudge
• 3Y The Movement: Free Stuff project
• 3X Top Secret: too easy for a nudge
• 3W Entertainment Value: this one can haunt you for years

I just want to warn you that if you read this weblogposting you might get addicted in a very bad way. You will find the most addictive mind game in here that will keep you busy for weeks per puzzle and years to solve them all. I have been doing it since august 2001. However, solving a puzzle will make you feel better than any drug out there can do. This could well become part of your regular life. It took until august 2007 until 1 player finally solved all puzzles!

Many many years ago, in 2001 , I bought, in a shop in the Netherlands, a little box named "the stone".

the physical stone - Inside it was "a stone" of which only 2 were made. If you would find the other stone containing the same symbols you would find your stone soul mate. You could check it online and although I checked during a long period, I think noone has bought my other half of the stone.

The website - Inside it was also an access code to give you entrance to the stone website , which was filled with extremely hard "mind-puzzles", ordered in a particular 3d shape that consisted of just 1 images and some words or little clues. Puzzles were named like "stained glass" or "the unknown". For insider each of these names are legendary. I solved my first on 5 august 2001.

So, beginning august 2001, you can see me working my way, and blogging about it, of slowly unlocking puzzles, giving you access to even more puzzles. During the years I only managed to solve a little part of the Enigma but others have conquered it all, as can be read on selective weblogs.

Back then I think I infected quite some people with this stone virus. Some days I went to work with a printed out version of a puzzle (just 1 image) to "keep it alive in my head" and discussing options with others.

I went away for some while and today I discovered that the stone has closed. Which was unfortunate because I was looking for another puzzle. However I also discovered that the complete website is now open to everyone for FREE (…) on http://www.thestonemonument.com , just register and you can log in immediately!!! Read Wikipedia on the Stone to find out it closed august 2008 .

Ofcourse, since it is now free, I want you all share my experiences with the game and "feel it". This is now a unique opportunity possible since it’s free. If you are a LOST fan than you will get about the same experience from the Stone site, however now you can solve it!

Do not think of these puzzles are "regular" "difficult" puzzles. These puzzles work differently. I think I can only explain this to you by giving you an example, but for that I will have to give you much extreme clues about the solution to this puzzle.

EXAMPLE WITH SCREENSHOTS

So only read on if you want the clues about one of the specific puzzles!!! I am only posting this because I think giving you an example is the only way to "explain" what it is and get real excited about it.

As soon as you log in you will see this:

At the bottom you see different icons.

The first icon is "The Unkown", this is actually a very small mini version of the large game with only a little set of puzzles.

Click on that icon to start the "demo" and to give you a feel for the games.

You will now see a little cube with 9 dots in it. Each dot represent 1 puzzle, when you mouse over it, you will see the name of the puzzle.

When you click on the puzzle "Gravity". You will see your first puzzle. It took about 3 minutes to solve this one on august 5, 2001 . So remembers, these are only the 9 demo puzzles and are all much easier than the real puzzles (which are now all free, wow). Gravity looks like this:

Now what you see is an apple falling, 6+6 and 32-1. Furthermore the puzzle is titles "gravity". I think your mind is now already making some associations and this is exactly what this game is about.

So let’s see, 6+6=12 and 32-1 = 31. Which makes 12.31, maybe a year or a time or something else? Or should we treat the numbers as characters? So 66 and 321?

The apple and gravity ofcourse reminds us of Newton under the tree, discovering Gravity. Let’s try to enter "newton" although we don’t have a clue about the numbers:

So the system tells us that this is not true. Probably everyone enters this the first. Apparently it’s an event.

Hmmm… an event mostly has a date. Let’s Google on "1230" and "newton" and "apple" and "gravity" …. that brings us nowhere.

Hmmm… that apple looks quite BIG, like a "big apple" (your mind has to make this snap), and the numbers could be turned around like "31/12" (your mind must be capable to make this other snap).

What does that mean, what event are we looking for, 31 december (in the big apple)?

Exactly!

You have now solved your first puzzle in the stone. The numbers could have probably led you to the solution, but as often in this game you can get extra mind-hints to direct your thinking.

The other 8 demo puzzles in "the unknown" are challenging each in its own, they all have their little twists. When you have solved them, it’s time to enter the real deal, the immediate:

As you can see you have access to 12 puzzles to start with, solving each on of them will give you access to more, eventually bringing you to …

Good luck! Let me now how you liked it and on which puzzle you are working on.