Ciphers

Versailles Cipher

The Versailles Cipher is a relatively simple block transposition cipher I designed in June 2023. It is based on a relatively common variety of the Versailles tile pattern, although in theory one could base the cipher off of any irregular pattern of rectangles.

The route taken for the transposition begins in the top-left block of whichever pattern is being used, and fills in this block in scanline order. Once this block is full, the cipher continues in the next empty block in terms of scanline order, until the tiling unit is complete, at which point a new block is started.

As an example, here is the first sentence of Finnegans Wake written in the Versailles Cipher, supplemented with filler letters:

rigncrhorgetl
veruasreobdod
adnptebienfbm
nadsverngsaya
aamfromsubyac
ierveswmodiom
icofsoanusvnt
usfrirdevinsd
toeccubsroaru
inbklaosrseke
iactohosjtbls
nhcaswtrvxeaa
hetleclwelkrd

See if you can solve this one for yourself:

chtrukh
ecthitj
fhetleo
tisgsoa
ipaeand
neothth
eoersee